Apple iPad already harming netbook sales
The Apple iPad has arrived, and with it a new alternative to the laptop. Who needs a netbook anymore?
Netbooks have seen an incredible rise in popularity over the last few years as consumers decided to shun buying big and bulky notebooks, turning instead to the tiny, low-cost netbooks for their computing needs. However, the arrival of the Apple iPad and the tablet sector as a whole is likely to mean netbooks glory days come to a stuttering halt.
According to Business Week, netbook shipments are only expected to rise a tepid 33.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010, compared to the incredible 872 percent seen in the same period last year.
The arrival of the iPad is obviously only partly to blame for this slowdown, but its effect cannot be underestimated. When faced with the choice of an iPad or a netbook I can see many people giving their money to Apple, especially as the iPad is priced at near to netbook price levels.
This will surely please Steve Jobs, who quipped, “Netbooks aren’t better than anything. They’re just cheap laptops,” during the iPad unveiling on Jan. 27. It looks like his wish to see the iPad fill the void between smartphones and notebooks could be granted.
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April 5th, 2010
Anyone that want’s to take the SD card from their camera and stick it into a media reader integrated with the device.
Anyone that wants to do video conferencing which, despite all the ink being put out about this device making inroads with the enterprise, seems like a no brainer for a device like this.
Apple had to put limitations in the device to make it as difficult as possible to use it as a Macbook lite.
It was the same reason a Netbook was an impossible thing for Apple to put out.
There will be tablets from manufacturers without the limitations forced on Apple because they compete primarily with their own products. Apple is fine if you buy an iPad instead of a touch. A Macbook is another matter. The iPhone is still critical for them
Skype and Google Voice for the iPad should be an interesting sideshow.
That’s just reality. Everyone else is going to compete for the consumer dollar based on offering more features and options than the other guy.
The potential of a device like this running Chrome and leveraging the diverse applications and services already in place and mature by Google is pretty enticing. The millions who use some Google app like gmail or picasa have a known and trusted image of them already
There is no doubt the iPad will be a big success, and deservedly so. But the people who were looking for something in a Netbook role as an “instead of” and not “in addition to”