Tag: NPD

Tablets to outsell laptops by 2 to 1 next year

Posted on July 30, 2013 by - News, Products

cheap-tabletsIntel is starting to talk up its 2-in-1s, but for the time being tablets seem to be beating laptops by a ratio of 2 to 1.

According to NPD DisplaySearch, shipments of tablet PCs will hit 364 million units next year, more than double the projected 177 million for laptops of all shapes and sizes, including Intel’s favourite vapourware of the day, 2-in-1 hybrids.

What’s more, tablet PC sales are expected to hit 589 million by 2017, while sales of laptops and ultraslims will hit 176 million units. Laptops aren’t going anywhere, they just won’t see much growth and they will be complemented by tablets, not replaced by them.

“The PC market is clearly shifting away from notebooks and toward tablets,” said Richard Shim, senior analyst with NPD DisplaySearch. “Supply chain indications reveal that previously planned production of notebook PCs is being pulled back due to declining adoption and that brands are gradually increasing the number of tablet PC models in their product mixes. Panel and finished goods suppliers are also increasing production of displays and other components for tablets in order to keep up with the market changes.”

tablet-shipments-NPD

Most growth in the tablet space is currently coming from emerging markets, where it is having an effect on PC sales. In markets with low PC penetration, most first-time buyers choose laptops, but an increasing number is turning to even cheaper tablets, leading to direct cannibalization. In addition, the market is shifting to cheaper and smaller tablets, which are a better fit for emerging markets than big, high-end tablets.

“Smaller tablets are important, because they will encourage adoption in emerging regions,” Shim said. “Smaller screen sizes translate to lower priced tablet-PC options, since display panels tend to comprise just over a third of the total cost of a tablet, which makes them attractive in price-sensitive markets.”

The choice of tablet form factors is increasing and smaller tablets, with screens up to 8 inches, are expected to account for 59 percent of sales this year. In 2015 they will grab 63 percent of the market and there is a shift from 7-inch panels to 7.5- and 8-inch units. This is encouraging news for laptop makers, as it indicates that consumers are buying cheap and small tablets as companion devices, rather than replacements for proper mobile PCs.

Chromebooks defy slow PC market with strong growth

Posted on July 12, 2013 by - News, Products

chromebookDemand for traditional desktops and laptops has been waning for years and the last two quarters saw the biggest slump in PC shipments in decades, but Google’s Chromebooks have bucked the trend.

Envisioned as cheap alternatives to Windows based laptops and netbooks, Chromebooks are cheap and cheerful, usually priced between $199 and $299. Although the market is still on a tablet binge, consumers seem to be quite interested in Chromebooks as well.

NPD estimates that Chromebooks have already managed to seize 20 to 25 percent of the sub-$300 laptop market in the Land of the Free. Overall, Chromebooks had a 4 to 5 percent market share in the first quarter, up from one to two percent a year ago.

That is a pretty impressive share for a category of products that practically didn’t exist a year ago and even today many consumers have no idea what a Chromebook actually is. NPD analyst Stephen Baker told Bloomberg that he was initially sceptical, but he now believes Chrombooks have managed to find a niche in the marketplace.

“The entire computing ecosystem is undergoing some radical change, and I think Google has its part in that change,” he said.

The untimely demise of the netbook also played a role in the Chromebook surge. Although netbooks weren’t that big among average consumers, they were essentially a good way of getting very cheap yet fully functional computers to schools and other institutions on a budget.

Chromebooks are just more of the same, but their success beckons the question – couldn’t have Intel and Microsoft played their netbook cards a bit better five years ago? After all, Google seems to be proving that there is still enough room for dirt cheap laptops, in spite of the tablet juggernaut. It seems Intel made a terrible strategic miscalculation with Atom cores.

Five years ago Chipzilla didn’t want to peddle high-volume low-margin chips, yet now it is struggling to come up with competitive mobile SoCs, which are basically an evolution of the original Atom concept. Maintaining higher margins and appeasing the Street with good quarterly results seems to have been more important than a comprehensive long-term mobile strategy.