Tablet's rising creating threat to netbooks

By Kukil Bora, SiliconIndia   |   Wednesday, 03 November 2010, 13:41 IST   |    2 Comments
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Tablet's rising creating threat to netbooks
Bangalore: Into the ever innovative computer business, tablets have brought a significant change in the recent times, a change which is responsible for taking away the market from gadgets like netbooks, casting a shadow of doubt over them. Analyst said that the all-in-one nature of media tablets will leads to cannibalization of other devices in the PC market, with most of the damage being dealt to the netbook segment. Going with the estimation made by the IT research firm Gartner, tablets are poised for massive growth with worldwide sales for 2011 pegged at 54 million units and to cross 208 million units by 2014. Since the launch of the iPad, the tablet market has come a long way and with new contenders emerging every other day, the league of tablet makers seems to grow at a fast rate. Adding to the increasing number of tablets in the market, the decreasing price of the same is also considered to be a threat for netbooks. According to analysts, the average selling price (ASP) of media tablets is expected to drop down below $300 over the next two years. Compared to laptops, netbooks are smaller and lighter. Their screen is roughly 10 inches unlike the 15-inch laptop. But tablets are even lighter, more portable and just as useful. A key factor that tablet computers such as the Apple iPad offers is the sleek design that netbooks don't have. Netbooks do have a plus point over tablets in the form a keyboard, but advances in touchscreen technology are making that less of an issue. The touch user interface, the applications available on the different operating systems and the simpler set up compared to a full-fledged computer make media tablets ideal for a range of consumers. Storage capacity can also be a key differentiating factor that may slightly favour netbooks over tablets. Most modern netbooks come with 1GB DDR2 RAM with an option of expanding to 2GB and the hard disk of a netbook can up to 250GB. On the other hand, tablet computers are also unlikely to offer the high storage capacities available in netbook. Most of the mobile tablet devices today use NAND flash technology to offer limited memory capacity, typically 64GB or less. Another research firm, Forrester said that by 2015 Tablet sales will represent 23 percent of U.S. computer sales, compared to netbook sales at only 17 percent. If Forrester Research is correct, chances are there that tablets will outsell netbooks. As tablets are moving from early adopters to mainstream, they will surely become a family purchase as well as a personal choice. But the question is, although all these figures indicate an early demise for netbooks, is it really so? Majority of the answers may be 'Yes', but a few 'No' can also be expected. Since both tablets and netbooks have their strengths, both can work well for the corporate space. The general assumption has been that tablets could be killing the netbooks, but as per the most recent market researches, there may be a new target that has not been considered previously: Smartphones. The high-end smartphones are expected to be cannibalized by the upcoming 7-inch tablets, as Gartner researchers believe that it makes little sense to own both due to their overlap in functionality. So again we end up with a question - netbooks or smartphones, which one to be cannibalized? Or both will survive the heat?