iPad 'cannibalised' Q2 netbook sales

Market watcher Gartner this week presented further evidence that early adopter enthusiasm for netbooks has peaked. "Mini-notebook shipment growth slowed significantly in Q2 2010," said Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa. Growth, she said, "slowed" to the low 20 per cent range, down from more than 70 per cent in Q1 2010 …

[David Simpson 1]

Utter balls.

Funny how they link this to the iPad and not to the load of new thin, cheap and light ULV laptops around.

They have stolen sales from Netbooks because they use actual working CPUs like Celeron or Pentium dual core ULV, which even running at 1.2GHz are twice as fast as an Atom.

They start at around £350 too so make a much better buy than a Netbook or an iPad

[famousringo]

Hold on

Wouldn't ULV laptops fall into either Gartner's 'mini-notebook' or 'notebook' category? Gartner claims growth in both categories has slowed, so the only way new products in those categories could explain that is if people didn't like the new products.

If I were looking for a non-iPad explanation for why growth is slowing in notebooks and netbooks, I'd probably just go with good 'ol market saturation.

[chr0m4t1c]

Take that back!

"And crucially, we'd add, a sign that the iPad isn't solely selling to fanboys."

How dare you come in here and spread such malicious rumours! Take it back, this instant!

It's not possible for any rational being to buy an iPad, or any other piece of crApple kit because they're all overpriced for the specifications, therefore anyone who buys any crApple kit *must* be a fanboi.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh!

"Surging popularity of Apple's iPad temporarily cannibalized mini-notebooks, as well as consumer notebook sales to some degree."

'temporarily'!

rrriiiiiiggghhhhtttttttt!

[David Gosnell]

If netbooks have peaked...

... it's just as much because the manufacturers are losing sight of the concept, making them ever bigger and ever more expensive, some believe intentionally to blur the distinction from budget full-size laptops, whose sales they are seeing suffer as a result.

If you could still buy a new 9" or 10" netbook for £175 with essentially no more bells and whistles than you got on the original EeePC or Acer Aspire One, well marketed it would rightly leave the iPad for dust.

[Raz]

Title required?

I am interested of buying a netbook but I have no need for an iPad. I need a replacement for my relatively big notebook, not a toy. What kept me from getting a netbook yet is the fact that I could not find the right balance between the price, the screen size (I want 11"), CPU power and battery life. But it looks like in another 6 months new, more powerful netbooks are coming to market.

[Robert Forsyth]

Can you still buy netbooks?

You know the less than 1.2 kg, 9" - 10" screens things with SSD instead of HDD.

[FARfetched]

iPad not a PC?

Hm. As an iPad owner, Gartner has a point there. The iPad requires a "mothership" computer to even set up, let alone function, and the mothership has to be running iTunes. The primary counter-argument would be that it doesn't need to dock with the mothership very often.

Then again, you can use the silly thing all day long and get actual work done on it (for certain values of "work") and perform useful non-work tasks. I've taken it on an extended weekend trip and didn't miss the laptop. It may not be your cup of tea (or coffee on this side of the pond), but sales figures suggest a lot of other people are happy with it.

[Mark 65]

Gartner correct, for once

"We'd argue that the iPad - and comparable tablets from other vendors when they come - are personal computers, and if Gartner is going to include netbook shipments it has to include tablets too."

Nope, it's a device/appliance - take your pick. I have no way of legitimately changing the OS or, more importantly, installing what I like on it therefore it is not a PC but a device/appliance (much like the iTouch) with an embedded OS. Other vendors' tablets will likely be regardable as PCs as they won't be hamstrung in this way.