For months executives at high-tech companies, such as Intel, have claimed netbooks are not cannibalizing sales of more traditional, fully featured notebooks.
Evidence to the contrary is rising.
In a PC market forecast released Thursday, IDC claimed that these “mini notebooks” are having a dramatic impact on the market.
IDC says netbook sales in the first quarter helped quash the notebook business
In the first quarter, shipments of 5.7 million netbooks helped contribute to a 3.1-million unit decline in the traditional notebook sales, the firm said.
Revenue suffered even more. Netbooks brought an additional $2.2 billion of sales to the PC market. But the drop in notebook revenue was $8.4 billion.
“Mini Notebook pricing is expected to rise with more robust models, and shipment growth is expected to slow with the release of low-cost, thin-and-light Intel CULV and AMD Congo-based (notebooks) this fall,” says IDC.
However, netbooks will rise to 17.3 percent of all portable PCs and that will drive shipment value down 17.7 percent this year.
Yes, I would call that cannibalization.
Jean-Baptiste Su
Mark Boslet
chiahwu