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

[Threni]

To be fair, though, the idea that sales were affected was based on asking people what they were going to buy, not what they already bought. People talk a lot of crap. So it's best to ignore what they say and concentrate on what they do. Not many people are going to not buy a netbook because of an iPad, because they satisfy different markets. Netbooks are great for people who want to throw a small pc in a bag and have access to the net, type emails etc on the go. iPads are great for..well...uh..say you wanted an expensive, easy to scratch laptop but wanted to have to hold it awkwardly all the time you were using it, didn't want to actually type anything on it etc. They're great for that, I guess.

Re:Watch the messenger

[AmigaMMC]

I have little use for an iPad, but I just bought less than a month ago a Netbook (Asus Eee PC 1005PCB) and totally love it. It's powerful enough to play all those lame Facebook Flash games, LOL, and actually plays all DivX video without a glitch, something my other crappy HP laptop with 2X core can't do. Battery lasts about 11 hours with normal use and about 7-8 hours watching video. I tried typing on an iPad and couldn't stand it, but I do travel writing and blogging and I don't have a problem typing on my Netbook.

So, as far as I'm concerned Netbooks are alive and well.

Re:1 million

[AmigaMMC]

If you are assuming that the iPad took 25% of the netbooks market I bet you're wrong. I'm willing to bet that most of those people were not planning to buy a netbook in the first place. Maybe, I could grant that iPad owners had in mind to buy an electronic book reader, to the iPad might have taken sales away from Amazon and Sony.

Re:Watch the messenger

[Anonymous Coward]

How the hell did this get modded up? Are the mods all math-ignorant retards or what? If growth of my product's sales is 5% year-on-year, I am still losing market share if growth of the entire market is 25% because of the exceptionally high sales of my competitors. You don't need negative growth to lose market share.

Not much impact... already leveling off

[__aazsst3756]

Netbook Growth Chart

Netbook sales were already leveling off. Looking at the sales figures, they have continued their downward growth trend that started months before the iPad was released. I have no idea how this is stretched into an iPad effect.

• The recession is easing, and people have more to spend on electronics, and are purchasing what they really wanted.
• It appears two of the biggest computer manufacturers Dell and HP are mostly exiting the netbook market.

The problem with Slashdot is the same

[SuperKendall]

Worked like a charm for me. And I do a lot of .NET development and SQL stuff... ....
The problem that a lot of folks have with understanding why tablets just aren't that much a threat to netbooks is that netbooks and tablets sate two different market segments.

And the problem with people that think the iPad lives in a different space is that they do not realize how few people need to do things like .NET development that cannot be done on an iPad.