Tablet Demand Hurting Netbook Market

by Paul Carton | November 2, 2010 8:04 am

The debate continues over the impact Tablets are having on both the consumer PC market and Netbook demand. But what is particularly unclear is which companies are going to emerge as the biggest winners and losers?

To find out, ChangeWave surveyed 3,108 consumers during October on the latest planned buying trends for PCs, Netbooks and Tablets – including the impact of the Apple (AAPL[1]) iPad.

PCs vs. Netbooks vs. Tablets

The percentage of respondents saying they plan on buying a desktop over the next 90 days (6%) has ticked up 1-pt since our previous survey in August, while planned purchases of laptops (8%) remain unchanged.

But one area that’s come down drastically from a year ago is consumer interest in Netbooks. Just 14% of those who plan on buying a laptop in the next 90 days say it will be a Netbook – 10-pts below our peak reading for Netbooks back in June 2009.

The decline of Netbooks is attributable to a combination of factors including the end of the recession and the mounting penetration of Tablet computers – notably the Apple iPad. Moreover, in a close-up look at Tablet demand trends for the Holidays our ChangeWave survey finds continuing momentum for the iPad.

Importantly, nearly three-quarters of current iPad owners (72%) say they’re Very Satisfied with their device and another 23% say they’re Somewhat Satisfied – world class satisfaction ratings for the Apple Tablet.

Future Demand Trends. Going forward, a flurry of competitors are entering the Tablet market – including the H-P (HPQ[2]) Slate, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the Research In Motion (RIMM[3]) PlayBook.

To measure consumer demand, we asked respondents how likely they are to buy a new Tablet – and we find an extraordinarily high one-in-four (26%) say they plan on purchasing a Tablet in the future (8% Very Likely; 18% Somewhat Likely).

Not surprisingly, Apple is the biggest beneficiary here – with four-in-five likely Tablet buyers (80%) saying they’ll purchase an iPad.

Research In Motion’s yet-to-be-released PlayBook tablet comes in second in terms of consumer planned buying at 8%, followed by the Samsung Galaxy Tab (3%) and the H-P Slate (2%). But with the iPad having already set the bar so very high in terms of customer expectations, these new Tablets all have their work cut out for them in order to succeed in the race to gain new market share.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on both the consumer and corporate market for Tablets in upcoming ChangeWave surveys.

Note that the complete ChangeWave Consumer PC, Netbook and Tablet Demand report – including findings on Dell (DELL[4]), Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and other computer manufacturers – is available here[5].

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2010/11/tablet-demand-hurting-netbook-market/

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