Some PC makers may have taken comfort in a few analyst comments following Apple’s fourth-quarter financial report that left some on Wall Street wondering if the laptop was truly dead. However, look a bit closer and it becomes a case of Apple sales being lost to, um, Apple.
The cause of some concern: Apple reported iPad shipments in the fourth quarter of 11 million units, lower than the 13 million to 14 million the Street expected. “That’s a sizable shortfall, Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar told CNET. Analyst Keith Bachman of BMO Capital Markets somewhat couched his worries about the tablet, saying “MacBook Air sales may have cannibalized some of iPad” sales. Indeed, he cut his iPad shipment estimate by 2.5 million tablets for fiscal 2012.
But that’s where the concern ends. While Apple shipped a record 4.89 million Macs — most MacBooks — there is little if no evidence PCs are making a dent in iPad sales. Earlier this morning, we reported Good Technology, a firm that tracks mobile technology used in business, referring to the Android tablet market as a ’rounding error’ compared to Apple’s dominance.
Now comes word more tablets are shipping than netbooks – and the trend is unlikely to reverse. More than 13 million tablets shipped this quarter, compared to 7.3 million netbooks, ABI Research announced. At the start of fiscal 2011, netbooks led tablets 8.4 million to 6.4 million. Leading tablet shipments is the iPad, which comprised 68 percent of the devices shipped in the second quarter, according to the New York research firm.
The new figures indicate consumers see tablets as more interesting that netbooks. “Media tablets are perceived to be easy to use, compared to the keyboard and mouse interface of a netbook computer,” Jeff Orr, group director of mobile devices. Orr said cost is not a factor in choosing tablets over netbooks, since a $600 tablet costs about twice that of a laptop.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini raised some eyebrows when he disputed news that PC makers were selling fewer laptops. He said his company is selling plenty of processors during “double-digit growth in notebook PCs.” The Intel leader said notebooks are being gobbled-up in emerging markets, a claim that appears to be supported by ABI Research which announced Thursday “netbooks still hold interest in underserved countries.”
