iPad Isn't "Killing" Netbook Sales, According To Paul Thurrott

mantis2009 writes "Paul Thurrott, the prolific technology analyst and Windows expert, reacts strongly to an article highlighted on Slashdot. Thurrott takes numbers from IDC and the Wall Street Journal, indicating that netbook sales have not in any meaningful way been affected by sales of Apple's tablet computer, the iPad. Money quote: '[N]etbooks and sub-12-inch machines will sell 45.6 million units in 2011 and 60.3 million in 2013. If I remember the numbers from 2009, they were 10 percent of all PCs, or about 30 million units. Explain again how the iPad will beat that. Please. Even the craziest iPad sales predictions are a small percentage of that.'"

Comments

Re:Watch the messenger

[aristotle-dude]

I for one will buy either a Tablet or a Netbook. Not an iPad though, a true Tablet, with LAN access to my files, Tethering, SD card, USB ports and video out. I'm holding out for all those Tablet pre-announcements, to see if one actually pans out.

Have you seriously ask you this. Do you already have a PC of some sort? If so, why would you want to spend any amount of money to run the same types of applications as you main machine only significantly slower than a laptop? With an iPad, you can have access to your files on the LAN through different third party apps, SD card access with the adapter, A USB port with the adapter and video out with a cable. The only think you will not get is tether although many carriers are offering plans to share smartphone data plans with the iPad.

I used a composite video + stereo L+R cable with my iPhone when I was in Tokyo in my hotel room and I also have a component out cable at home. The iPad has the added capability to output to VGA as well.

Unlike a netbook, you are not struggling to run applications meant for a faster PC on an underpowered device but rather applications specifically written the iPad. Games will run at full speed rather than slowly or not at all like a PC game would on a netbook.