Tablet boom hurting PC sales, but laptop groups need not lose sleep just yet

ShinyJess Computers, Tablet, Tech Digest news
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Tablets are hurting sales of laptops and desktop computers, according to data from the main hardware groups.

HP saw sales of these items slide 23% in the past quarter, according to CNET, while Dell saw a 7% dip in this category and at Acer it was down 16%. Tablets, on the other hand, are soaring; 47 million iPads are expected to sell this year, up to 108 million next year according to technology research house Gartner.

So does this represent the beginning of the end for laptops and desktop computers? Probably not. Research from Forrester shows that most people who buy tablets are also keeping up to date on their other computer equipment too: 44% of those buying a tablet had also bought a PC in the previous year.

After all, no matter how cute it is, a tablet isn’t a replacement for a PC or a laptop. Tablets are great for Twitter, reading newspapers and browsing, but you can’t really work on it, not really. The keyboard on the iPad is good considering it’s a touchscreen, but until Apple introduces haptic (tactile) feedback on the keys, there is no contest if you need do any more than just a little bit of typing.

Case in point: The man sitting in Starbucks the other day, with his iPad on a stand, hooked up to a full size mouse, a removable keyboard and a USB stick. The iPad is cute, but what you have in front of you now, mate, it’s called a netbook.

ShinyJess
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3 comments

  • First I want to say in front of that many people often ask to see the iPad or even to replace Netbook Notebook feasibility; on this point, I can say is “impossible.” Like ” Steve Jobs “In the iPad will be published when expressed, iPad is a range between mobile phones and mobile devices Notebook. iPad powerful than a cell phone but lighter than the Notebook, but also conducive to carry. It qualified for the end user will normally carried out with the Notebook part of the work but not all. It is used to fill the gap between mobile phones and the Notebook, not to replace either of those.

  • ..People like me would still like to use laptops than tablets..i don’t think so desktops have lost its market entirely yet..corporations are still using them..

  • ..People like me would still like to use laptops than tablets..i don’t think so desktops have lost its market entirely yet..corporations are still using them..

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