Tablets look set a displace the netbook, if figures from market watcher DisplaySearch are to be believed.
DisplaySearch tracks all mobile computer sales, from netbooks through ultraportables right the way up to desktop replacement behemoths.
The telling figures are netbooks' share of the overall mobile computer market. According to DisplaySearch's data, that share rose from just under 14 per cent in Q3 2008 to around 20 per cent in Q2 2009 - this time last year. Since then the share figure has stayed static at just over 20 per cent.
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This shows netbooks have found their niche - though at a fifth of the mobile computer market, it's a big one.
But now it's being eaten into the the tablet, and the iPad in particular.
DisplaySearch puts the Apple gadget's share of the netbook segment at
6.5 per cent in Q1 2010 - Apple shipped 700,000 of them into retail channels, DisplaySearch said - rising to 30 per cent in Q2, though that remains a forecast - the quarter's not done yet.Crucially, that plateau share of the overall portable PC arena includes tablets. So as iPad sales have come primarily at the cost of netbook sales, eating into the latter to keep the overall group's market share the same.
That's just the iPad - more tablets are coming, from HP and Samsung to name but two.
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