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Tablet sales overtake Netbooks
New Q2 sales figures reveal that tablets have overtaken Netbooks for the first time
iPad 3
Published on Oct 25, 2011
A new report reveals that tablet sales have boomed alongside declining Netbook sales, suggesting tablets are actually replacing Netbooks as the preferred mobile media device.
The report from market research company ABI Research shows tablet sales in the second quarter of 2011 reached 13.6 million units shipped, up from 6.4 million in the first quarter, representing a total growth of 112 per cent.
Meanwhile, in the same period, Netbook sales fell from 8.4 million to 7.3 million – just over half the total number of tablets shipped in that time.
Jeff Orr, ABI Research’s group director for mobile devices, said: ‘This is a trend that we do not expect will reverse.’
‘As they are different segments, this is not a direct replacement behaviour, but a changing of leadership for the most interesting device type,’ he added.
ABI Research cited the Apple iPad as a driving force behind tablet growth with a 68 per cent share in the global market for the second quarter.
Orr commented on the increasing popularity of tablets, saying: ‘Media tablets are perceived to be easy to use, compared to the keyboard and mouse interface of a netbook computer'
‘Those who have avoided PCs because they are difficult to use – think the Baby Boomer generation and older – see media tablets as an opportunity to re-engage with Internet access.’
Orr conceded that cost was still an issue, however, and noted that the average Netbook retails at around half the price of the average tablet.
With Apple’s iPad 3 rumoured for launch next year the tablet market seems set to continue its expansion.
However, it will be interesting to see how cross-platform operating systems such as Microsoft’s Windows 8, designed to run both on PCs with a mouse and keyboard and on touchscreen tablets, may change the market further.
This, together with the increasing number of ‘morphing’ devices such as the Asus Transformer Prime tablet, which is both a tablet and laptop and set to arrive this year, could feasibly lead to a complete merger of the two platforms.
