Netbooks nosedive as tablets soar

Once the darling of the consumer technology market, netbooks are currently experiencing something of a comedown as buyers appear keen to adopt a tablet PC instead.

According to market analyst IDC, netbook sales have taken such a hit over the last quarter that it's also beginning to impact on PC sales as a whole, while tablet sales remain buoyant. In the last quarter, netbook sales were down by a significant 25 percent, which in turn helped to slow down overall PC sales growth by just 0.5 percent compared with the same quarter last year.
Sales in other global regions have fared better, however, and the overall picture for PC sales is still positive, with shipments up to 27.8 million in the third quarter of 2010. However, Western Europe has certainly witnessed a slowdown of sorts.

IDC is putting some of the blame for this shift in netbooks' fortunes down to the growth of interest in the tablet PC. "The deceleration was directly impacted by weaker than expected mini-notebook demand, which led to a 25 per cent drop in shipment levels,” the firm says. “Demand for netbooks had already started to slow down in prior quarters, but the arrival of new media tablets contributed to shifting interest further away and accelerated the trend.”

The inference here is that consumers are keen to hold off until Christmas to see what's on the market in tablet PC terms as more manufacturers launch their own rival products to compete with Apple's popular iPad. While this could signal a new trend in consumer purchases as far as portable computing is concerned, it's worth remembering that a tablet PC is a very different proposition to a netbook and, particularly among budget buyers, netbooks should find a captive audience for a while yet.