Forget Netbooks, iPad Cannibalizing Entire PC Industry
Apple’s iPad may not be cannibalizing Mac sales, but it’s evidently having a deleterious effect on the PC market–and not just the netbook segment. According to UBS analyst Maynard Um, the iPad is having a negative impact on the entire PC industry.
“Sales of traditional notebooks appear to be feeling pressure from the iPad, causing a scramble by vendors to launch iPad-like tablets,” Um wrote in a note to clients. “We believe that a majority of this impact is occurring on the lower end of PC sales as the iPad is priced close enough to this range that it becomes attractive to consumers looking to make purchases within this segment. We are not sold that the iPad is purely cannibalizing PC sales, as the functionality of the iPad can not yet fully match the functionality of notebook PC’s. However, consumers who purchase iPads may be more willing to delay purchases and upgrades of existing PC’s.”
And with few, if any, real iPad rivals at market, this trend will continue well into 2011. While competition in the tablet market is increasing–and rapidly, too–viable threats to Apple (AAPL) will be few and far between, says Um. With that in mind, he expects iPad unit shipments for calendar 2011 to be 28 million, a number that Um says “could still be conservative.”
[Image credit: Gizmodo commenter modestmouse and RBC Capital Markets]