Now Apple’s iPads Are Cannibalizing The Whole PC Industry (Sorry, Microsoft)
Interesting read. When the iPad was launched I had the feeling this would happen.
Found via this tweet:
https://twitter.com/svartling/status/23905621719
It started with netbooks--those cheap little compact laptops that were once the greatest thing since sliced bread: In the months leading up to the iPad's launch, the growth of sales of netbooks hit a wall (see chart at right).
And now, says UBS analyst Maynard Um [great name], iPads have become such a force of nature that they're cannibalizing the whole PC industry:
“Sales of traditional notebooks appear to be feeling pressure from the iPad, causing a scramble by vendors to launch iPad-like tablets... We believe that a majority of this impact is occurring on the lower end of PC sales as the iPad is priced close enough to this range that it becomes attractive to consumers looking to make purchases within this segment. We are not sold that the iPad is purely cannibalizing PC sales, as the functionality of the iPad can not yet fully match the functionality of notebook PC’s. However, consumers who purchase iPads may be more willing to delay purchases and upgrades of existing PC’s.”
Who is this bad news for?
Mainly, Microsoft and the PC hardware vendors.
Dell and HP can't be happy about this, either. And the farther ahead iPad gets in the tablet market, the harder it will be for Google's Android to catch up (though Android has done a fine job of catching up in the smartphone market).
It's great news for Apple, though.
Read more at www.businessinsider.com
13 Comments
I would have to reserve judgement on the accuracy of that assessment. While I might prefer iPad myself (and don’t care for netbooks and their tiny displays and keyboards) the raw numbers don’t support this conclusion.
Netbooks made up roughly 20% of PC sales in 2009. 2010 PC shipments are predicted around 370M units which translates to 74M netbooks. iPad sales are only at 3M (maybe 6M by end of year).
Even if we adjust down to 10%, we are still talking about 37M netbooks vs 3M iPads.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/01/gartner_2010_pc_forecast/
While I do agree it will cannibalize some netbook sales, I think the actual reality is that netbook demand is dropping in general (and laptops are cheaper in price as well, so might as well get a laptop). Also, we might say that the past year has not been the best economically…so you might want to take that into account as well.
That being said, I still have no plans to buy a netbook. I do plan to buy an iPad.
That said, I see no cannibalization. Wishful thinking, perhaps ;-).
Netbook Users vs Tablet Users
The reason I say this is simply because tablet (particularly) ipad, is a different usage model. It is primarily for lean back consumption of content. While I think some people purchased netbooks for this “consumption” purpose, I think the majority of netbook users really wanted more of a full featured productive environment: the ability to type, use normal productivity apps like Word, excel etc. So really there is a significant number of netbook users who simply wanted a *cheaper* laptop to use.
Saw this as well…
— http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/39770/Near-Term+PC+Growth+Not+Visible
Nonetheless, tablets will affect the PC market, particularly netbooks and notebooks. Apple Inc.’s iPad has cannibalized the growth in notebooks and netbooks, negatively impacting sales at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ - Analyst Report), Acer and Dell Inc. (DELL - Analyst Report), which relied considerably on their growth.
The lower-priced tablets from Dell (Streak tablet), Samsung (Galaxy Tab) and Toshiba (SmartPad tablet), as well as Android and Windows 7-based tablet devices that are expected to come out next year will slash the Netbook demand further, in our view.
Moreover, the netbooks that are expected to come out in the latter half of 2010 are higher-priced relative to 2009 (when they were often heavily discounted), which is also partially responsible for the slowdown in shipm... more
Netbook Users vs Tablet Users
The reason I say this is simply because tablet (particularly) ipad, is a different usage model. It is primarily for lean back consumption of content. While I think some people purchased netbooks for this “consumption” purpose, I think the majority of netbook users really wanted more of a full featured productive environment: the ability to type, use normal productivity apps like Word, excel etc. So really there is a significant number of netbook users who simply wanted a *cheaper* laptop to use.
Saw this as well…
— http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/39770/Near-Term+PC+Growth+Not+Visible
Nonetheless, tablets will affect the PC market, particularly netbooks and notebooks. Apple Inc.’s iPad has cannibalized the growth in notebooks and netbooks, negatively impacting sales at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ - Analyst Report), Acer and Dell Inc. (DELL - Analyst Report), which relied considerably on their growth.
The lower-priced tablets from Dell (Streak tablet), Samsung (Galaxy Tab) and Toshiba (SmartPad tablet), as well as Android and Windows 7-based tablet devices that are expected to come out next year will slash the Netbook demand further, in our view.
Moreover, the netbooks that are expected to come out in the latter half of 2010 are higher-priced relative to 2009 (when they were often heavily discounted), which is also partially responsible for the slowdown in shipments. Although this could lead to higher revenues, unit shipments will be hurt.
And when some completive tablets with reasonably prices comes out, Apple already has announced iPad 2 and the iPad 1 will even be cheaper than it is now.
They will see the price of $200 from some carrier like AT&T/Verizon and not consider total cost…
Perhaps that’s why financial markets are in such dire straits wrt credit/debt. Us Americans only see what it costs at this moment, with almost complete disregard to what it will cost us in the future.
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