Analyst Suggests 'Tablet Cannibalization' Responsible for Shrinking U.S. Notebook Retail Sales

[robotmonkey]

Most adults reach a certain (not very old) age where they no longer have 20/20 near vision. Ask your doctor about it so you won't be surprised one birthday.

ok my father is 50 and needs reading glasses and still loves the iphone 4 display because of the resolution. It's not like good sized text on an ipad is going to be 3/10 the size on an iphone display, and since it is so crisp (only for retina display, not so true for the older ones) you can see smaller than you ever thought you could.

The subject does not shrink with the display, only FOV. If the sacrifice in FOV is really worth the worse battery (audio playback is as much as 40 hours!), cumbersome size and keyboard, impractical transport options (always needs a bag to be mobile), phone capabilities, camera, facetime capability, gyro, and plain simplicity (combine 3 devices into one; phone, media tablet, ipod), then the ipad is better for you.

 

[Burger Thing]

I have to admit that I would love an ipad for college text books, but for now my college has special editions of textbooks just for that school (so they can make more money) and the books I need aren't on the ibooks store. And even then, I don't think I could justify spending 500 dollars on it.... 200-300 maybe.
.

The iPad is great for educational books with illustrations and stuff. I have used (or better, I have tried) to a top of the line Sony eBook reader, but that one was totally useless because with big PDF files and illustrations it became slow as a dog. Here the iPad shines. However, the screen is a compromise between getting a high resolution while having a relatively low demand on the processor for achieving a good battery life. So, as a dedicated ebook reader, the screen could use a slightly better resolution - hopefully with future models. But still, I take the bigger screen of the iPad over the small Retina iPhone for that matter.

Then again, I am sure textbook publishers would still rip people off with ipad textbooks (I am taking an online class and the online textbook was more money than any of my physical textbooks), and with a physical text book I can sell it back to a third party bookstore and make back at least 80% usually.

That is just not right. Maybe ebook users are now getting "punished" for having the convenience to be able to download the content instead of having to walk to a book shop?

 

[robotmonkey]

That is just not right. Maybe ebook users are now getting "punished" for having the convenience to be able to download the content instead of having to walk to a book shop?

right now it's a relatively small market meaning little competition so there is no reason for them to offer decent prices.

 

[*LTD*]

1. web surfing. It is not only about reading, but also about hitting links. On the iPhone i have to hit links on a microscopic level - and I have big fingers
   
   

1. 
   
   Well, just quickly pinch-to-zoom on the target.

 

[Burger Thing]

Yeah, but on the iPad I don't have to...

 

[Zc456]

Tablet =/= Laptop.

 

[*LTD*]

Yeah, but on the iPad I don't have to...

True!

 

[KingYaba]

I think market saturation has more to do with declining notebook sales.

 

[cmaier]

I think market saturation has more to do with declining notebook sales.

Doubt it. Computers have been around a long time, and it's unlikely that the market suddenly, in a 3 month timespan, became saturated.

 

[Corndog5595]

I think market saturation has more to do with declining notebook sales.

Your list of 42 reasons is highly flawed.

 

[Mainsail]

Enjoying my iPad

Honestly, I thought all of the naysayers would be embarrassed to argue that the iPad is useless...... Given the millions sold and the rush for competitors to copy it's success. I can respect a point of view that the iPad might not work for everyone, and some folks just don't need it. That's fine.

If I was a single guy, I might not see the use case if I owned a laptop and a smartphone, but for a family guy this is a great device. In our house, we have a couple of laptops, but I wanted another device, since they were constantly in use. At half the price of a MacBook, the iPad has been a perfect addition for us. After almost 6 months of enjoyment, it is still the most used device in the house. I own an iPhone, but prefer the larger screen of the iPad for most of the uses. I can hardly tear it away from the kids. When we go on vacation, we take the iPad rather than a heavier laptop. When we go boating, the navigation apps are very helpful. I have the same apps on the iPhone, but the bigger screen is very useful for picking out details, such as shoals and buoy info. The iPad saved me 000s on a chartplotter and radar.

If somebody doesn't believe the iPad is right for them, ok. But, I really don't understand why someone would come to a forum and try to convince folks that this device is useless, when all of the evidence is to the contrary.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Honestly, I thought all of the naysayers would be embarrassed to argue that the iPad is useless...... Given the millions sold and the rush for competitors to copy it's success. I can respect a point of view that the iPad might not work for everyone, and some folks just don't need it. That's fine.

If I was a single guy, I might not see the use case if I owned a laptop and a smartphone, but for a family guy this is a great device. In our house, we have a couple of laptops, but I wanted another device, since they were constantly in use. At half the price of a MacBook, the iPad has been a perfect addition for us. After almost 6 months of enjoyment, it is still the most used device in the house. I own an iPhone, but prefer the larger screen of the iPad for most of the uses. I can hardly tear it away from the kids. When we go on vacation, we take the iPad rather than a heavier laptop. When we go boating, the navigation apps are very helpful. I have the same apps on the iPhone, but the bigger screen is very useful for picking out details, such as shoals and buoy info. The iPad saved me 000s on a chartplotter and radar.

If somebody doesn't believe the iPad is right for them, ok. But, I really don't understand why someone would come to a forum and try to convince folks that this device is useless, when all of the evidence is to the contrary.

I personally would not call the iPad useless but I will not call it a laptop/netbook replacement.

The iPad fits in that nice middle ground between smart phone and laptop. But it does not replace them.

The iPad is going to take some sells away from the iPod touch and going to steal some from the netbooks but only at the edges of both.
I think the real reason we saw the drop in sales in netbooks/laptops is those numbers they had were not sustainable and any one who believes that they were need to have their head looked at.

 

[absynth]

Maybe it has to do with we are in a mega recession and it's not the holidays. I find it extremely hard to think that people want the iPad over a Macbook (enough for the trend to go from 70% to -4% in 6 months).

I'd prefer an ipad + imac / mac mini over a macbook any time. The macbook is nice as a one size fits all but it doesnt really do anything well. For doing serious work a laptop can never beat a desktop, for leisure browsing on the couch it's also inferior to an ipad, and it's less mobile than an ipad as well.
Only people that need to work/write a lot on the go i see value for a laptop. The other 90% of the population is better of with a desktop + tablet.

 

[absynth]

Now that is a statement that makes sense. I would like to see the statistics of droid/iphone sales vs laptop sales.

My iphone does everything I could ever want on-the-go, whether that be email, web, music, phone, or even acting as a motion tracking star map for when I go stargazing. If I had an ipad, I would have to carry it in a man-purse, I couldn't just whip it out anywhere since it is a rather large product, I would need to carry a separate device for phone and music (Though I guess you could be unique and carry around an ipad for listening to music and use skype or a similar app in-place of a phone though you would look rather silly ), and I wouldn't be able to comfortably play games and have such an ingenious star map since the screen/overall size is too large to easily manipulate. (I know there is an impressive commercial with a star map for the ipad but think about it; you are in a desert or a mountain somewhere in the wee hours of the morning just to get the best glimpse through your telescope and you have no place to put your ipad since it is so large but your iphone can just go back in your pocket.

[/rambling]

TIA

 

[Mainsail]

Context for Replacement

The context under which a "replacement" decision is made is kind of important. If I only had a laptop, I would probably not replace it with an iPad. If I lived in a household with a couple of laptops and several users, I might replace an old laptop with an iPad. Or, as others have suggested, I might replace my MacBook with a Mac Mini plus iPad for about the same cost. It would depend on the number of users and the other electronic gear in the house.

I just don't understand how someone can assume that what they experience as a need or use priority is the same as what everyone else is experiencing. If that were true, we would all still be driving Fords painted black.

 

[absynth]

If I were you I would shell out for a refurb imac or macbook. You won't be disappointed with the end-user experience and that in 5 years, your mac will still work while old pc-boxes will be crippled and unusable.

this is NONSENSE. The complete opposite is true.

Can i use an iphone 4 or even a damn ipod shuffle 4g on my powerbook? NO. I need to have Leopard which would cripple my system that has limited memory.

I can use both perfectly on my 5 yrs old XP system.

Can I print or scan from my powerbook? NO. There are no drivers for PPC systems.

I can use both perfectly on my 5 yrs old XP system.

Can i watch youtube movies from my powerbook? NO! 3 frames/s is what i get.

Goes fluently on my XP system.

I could go on.

I love macs but this statement of yours couldnt be further away form the truth.

 

[Eidorian]

It makes me wonder what people have expected from laptops for the past 10 years.

I need to hold out for mobile Bad Company 2. Here's to AMD's next Mobility HD 6500 line

 

[firewood]

The context under which a "replacement" decision is made is kind of important. If I only had a laptop, I would probably not replace it with an iPad. If I lived in a household with a couple of laptops and several users, I might replace an old laptop with an iPad. Or, as others have suggested, I might replace my MacBook with a Mac Mini plus iPad for about the same cost.

And don't discount running the Mini via VNC/Remote access from the iPad on the couch. Remote access works really poorly for games and videos, but one can do that directly on their iPad, other power user tasks can be remoted to the Mini (or even an XServe for the power user).

If that were true, we would all still be driving Fords painted black.

My favorite Henry Ford quote is about why not to ask customers what they wanted, because they would have said "a faster horse".

A lot of posters here still want to ride horses for their daily travel.

 

[4miler]

I'm primarily a content creator, whereas Steve Jobs says the iPad is more for content consumption (email, viewing webpages) - but there's no reason why Apple couldn't make the iPad great for content creation as well. Now, if an iPad had a Finder which synced file contents to OSX - that'd be a game changer.

 

[Thex1138]

What's been interesting is...

That iMac and MacBooks sales have increased over this same period...

 

[chatin]

GRID design ruled for 30 years.

The notebook has changed little since the first clamshell notebook design blasted into space with NASA nearly 30 years ago. I'm talking about the magnesium, GRID Compass.

The year was 1982. CPU is an Intel 8086. Price: $8,100

R.I.P. GRID

 

[cmaier]

The notebook has changed little since the first clamshell notebook design blasted into space with NASA nearly 30 years ago. I'm talking about the magnesium, GRID Compass.

The year was 1982. CPU is an Intel 8086. Price: $8,100

R.I.P. GRID

That's the sort of argument Cliff Clavin would make. The notebook has changed terrifically since the GRID compass. The only similarity is superficial: form factor.

Following your logic, here are some other things that haven't changed:

Airplanes since the Wright Brothers
Telephones since Alexander Graham Bell
Microprocessors since the 8008
Cars since the Model T

 

[Zc456]

It makes me wonder what people have expected from laptops for the past 10 years.

I can't understand why people are suddenly making such a fuss about laptops, let alone netbooks, to begin with. The MacBook is one for peepsake.

 

[mdelvecchio]

You didn't understand it, Apple ruthlessly dictates what programs are approved for the app store. Microsoft doesn't dictate what programs can be programmed on their operating system and nor does the open source community on *nix operating systems.

no, i got it all right. im reminding you that the nature of the platform DOES dictate to you -- you cant run what i consider must-have mac applications on you Windows machine; but inversely i CAN run must-have win apps on my mac.

get it?

screen size.

in the same way that you can swim in a pool but only bathe in a bath...you can *do more* with that screen size. dur. if this werent true, youd have a 14" monitor on your desktop. do you?

This is your justification for paying $629 for a 16GB Wifi/3G computer?

what are you talking about? i paid $499 for mine, specifically for those reason.

Flipsy? I don't know what laptops/netbooks you've used but that is a non-issue.

flimsy. even the prior-gen MBP has fragile feeling hinges. no denying it, mate. ive had plenty of HP laptops and have damaged them thru ordinary use.

Pass one handed? What you can't pass a whole 2-5lbs with one hand with a netbook or laptop? If not you better hit the gym.

its clumsy and certainly not as natural as passing a book, which is how passing an ipad is.

You sure seem to be having a hard time justifying that $629 16GB computer there bub.

not at all. my $499 tablet computer suits me much better than a laptop for the reasons ive stated.

no one in the sane mind would pick a iPad over that laptop for anything other than image/ego. There is just no functional benefit to the iPad over a laptop.

rubbish. not sure what image/ego id be serving on the toilet or sofa, anyway. and not needing a charger in an airplane is purely practical. youre just in sophomoric denial...meanwhile, the rest of the world marches on... see millions in apple tablet sales, soon to be followed by HTC, Samsung, etc etc..

denial...its whats for breakfast!

 

[mdelvecchio]

So you are going to pay 500 dollars for an unwieldy, bloated version of the iphone, pay a monthly fee for 3g for that device, another 100-200 for a phone, and a 3g subscription for the phone. Right.

wrong. i dont pay 3G for my tablet because 95% of the time its at home. when its not at home its in the airport... which means 100% of the time i have wifi that i dont need to pay anything for.

and at home its much, MUCH easier to read a web page on a tablet's larger screen, and the apps are engineered to do more (bathtub, swimming pool). further, some websites force me into a mobile-version on the iphone yet do not on the ipad. but really its about the larger screen for easier reading of lots of data. far easier than on a 3" screen. proof? you dont use a 14" monitor on a desktop.