Apple’s iPad running its own chip the A4 has become a cause of worry for the entire industry. While direct competitors in the handheld market are still trying to get competitive alternatives to the iPad out, rival PC makers are announcing their moves aswell. Even the business favorite RIM Blackberry has its Playbook tablet announced.
Last month it was Best Buy opened up a controversy with comments of iPad eating up 50% of netbook sales and that wasn’t the first time. Asus CEO, Jerry Shen in August had similar concerns. So whats new now? It seems that chip maker AMD has also put the blame on iPad’s success. Though Dirk Meyer (CEO of Advanced Micro Device) hasn’t put a number to it, but has made it clear that iPad has caused cannibalization of notebooks aswell (along with netbooks).
Clearly, in the last quarter or two, the tablet has represented a disruption in the notebook market. 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.
I personally think the answer is both, and given the pretty high price points of the iPad, there’s probably some cannibalization even of mainstream notebooks. We still believe in the long term that (growing sales of tablets present) market opportunities for companies like AMD.