Notebook growth has dropped to a level where it is now a negative figure, blaming the iPad’s launch for this decline, Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty has indicated.
The report shows that after six months of falling growth, which was when the iPad launched, US retail notebook unit growth fell 4pc year over year in August, making it negative for the first time.
Prior to this, year over year unit growth was rising each month. December 2009 was the highest, with its growth at 70pc.
January 2010 saw it rise to just 29pc, when the iPad was announced, and in April 2010, the month of its launch, it was cut down to 11pc.
Figures recorded for the first week of September show that units fell 4pc over a year again.
This follows shortly after US retailer Best Buy’s CEO stated that iPad sales have ‘cannibalised’ laptop sales by 50pc.
“We expect tablets to continue to pressure PCs as more vendors launch products (eg, Dell Streak and Samsung Tab) and Apple expands its iPad distribution,” said Huberty.
