Will MacBook Air Revive Notebooks… And Help Doom The iPad?

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Kaspersky believes Apple needs to invest more into Mac OS X security as more and more malware infections appear.
Kaspersky believes Apple needs to invest more into Mac OS X security as more and more malware infections appear.

Could the MacBook Air offer a future for notebooks? That’s the belief of one Wall Street analyst who says notebooks could make a comeback with tablets coming out on the losing end.

“The evolution of Apple’s MacBook Air laptop suggests that notebooks and tablets are converging,” Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi told investors Tuesday. That convergence is driven by the increasing use of low-power processors and solid-state storage.

“In the next 2-3 years, we believe OEMs will offer notebooks at the weight of the original iPad with touchscreen and integrated keypad capability for under $1,000,” Sacconaghi writes. “Ironically, availability of such notebook devices might undermine tablet sales, rather than vice versa,” the analyst notes.

Such a converged future could take two forms, one being Apple’s iOS “ecosystem,” with App Stores, hardware and services combined. Such a future could mean a 28 percent compound annual growth increase for the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant with Apple pushing PC makers to single-digit growth, according to the investor note.

So, in other words, this guy seems to be arguing that notebooks will become more tablet-like over the next two or three years. We doubt that’s going to kill off tablets… and certainly not the iPad. What do you think?

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