AMD CEO Says iPad Is Impacting Notebook Sales

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Chipmaker AMD hasn’t been doing well lately. Last year, they chalked up a third quarter loss of nearly $128 million. This year was scarcely any better at $118 million. At least this quarter, though, they have an excuse: the iPad’s killing notebook sales, even according to their own CEO.

Speaking to the investors on the impact of the iPad on netbook sales, AMD CEO Dirk Meyer was blunt.

“Clearly, in the last quarter or two, the tablet has represented a disruption in the notebook market,” said Meyer. “If you ask five people in the industry, you’ll get five different answers as to what degree there’s been cannibalization by tablets of either netbooks or notebooks.”

“Given the pretty high price points of the iPad, there’s probably some cannibalization even of mainstream notebooks,” he continued.

That’s certainly true: with most PC notebooks costing roughly the same as the iPad but without offering nearly the same sex appeal, it seems like an obvious lure to the consumers who, instead of upgrading a laptop, decide to live with it for a couple more years to get an iPad instead…. a device which can do most everything a new laptop can do anyway while also taking advantage of cheap mobile internet and a ten hour battery life.

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