iPad to lead netbook and Kindle market munch
Popping tablets in 2011
Tablet sales will more than double in the next year, with general-purpose machines taking business from mini notebooks and single-function tablets such as Amazon's Kindle.
The iPad will drive sales of media tablets in 2011, with 54.8 million units projected to ship worldwide according to Gartner compared to 19.5 million tablets this year.
North America will account for more than half of media tablet sales this year, but as they become available elsewhere, this proportion will drop to 43 per cent by 2014.
Gartner vice president of research Carolina Milanesi said in a statement that all-in-one tablets will cannibalize sales of e-readers, gaming devices and media players.
"Mini notebooks will suffer from the strongest cannibalization threat as media tablet average selling prices (ASPs) drop below $300 over the next two years," Milanesi said.
Gartner didn't use the phrase, but it probably meant netbooks.
Analyst ABI research said this week that netbooks were out-shipping tablets this year by a ratio of almost 4:1 with 43 million netbooks estimated to have been shipped compared to 11 million tablets — clearly the analysts use different methods to crunch their data, seeing as how they get different results.
Gartner defines media tablets as slates that support touch and run a lightweight operating system such as iOS, Android, webOS, or Meego, citing the iPad, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, and Cisco Systems' Cius as examples.
There was no mention of either Windows or the planned Windows tablets due from Microsoft and partners next year. Microsoft is waiting on the availability of Intel's Oak Trail platform in 2011 before it can deliver Windows on tablets in volume.
Gartner, meanwhile, recently predicted open source platforms would dominate smartphones, with Windows slipping in the rankings from fifth to sixth behind Meego. ®
COMMENTS
easy choice
Hmmm, £429 for the cheapest iPad or £149 for the Kindle. Difficult choice if you just want to read books!
IPad/Netbook
Why do people seem to think Tablets will eat into Netbooks market?
The iPad starts at almost twice the price of a cheap netbook, has less functionality and less battery life. Netbooks took off because they were good enough devices that were amazingly cheap. You didn't need to lug around a big laptop in university because a netbook can take notes, nor do you need a big 17" laptop for quick browsing on the sofa.
I remember playing with Tablets in 2002/2003 and for the first five minutes it was cool and then using the touch screen for data entry got old very fast. I recently played with an iPad and found exactly the same issue. Tablets work, but not in the same space as desktop/laptop computing.
Don't get me wrong the iPad is lowering ebook reader prices to the point where I'm considering buying one. I just don't think the market space covered by netbooks is the same as a iPad.
Not so much the kindle, more the also-rans
I doubt the iPad will hurt the Kindle much. Maybe the DX, but not the smaller size.
I could definitely see the iPad and other general-purpose tablets hurting the also-ran ebook readers and kindle clones.
Some lead ... iTablets didn't sell as wll as forecast
Looks like Apple is eating it's forecasts with sales showing a flattening, guess that people are realising some features are missing from Apple products including the ability to read free library e-books.
@Dave Foster
Yes, just got my kindle 3 (WiFi and 3G version). Slips into the inside pocket of my jacket without my knowing its there. Its perfect for the job (library in your pocket plus music, a little limited surfing, web-mail etc). Build quality and function contra price is a very pleasant equation. Horses for courses really. You can read, listen to music and check your e-mails. For the money its perfect. If you read a lot (I do) then not having to use a backlit screen is a real blessing.
