AppleInsider has a story today about market research firm NPD’s new report which has found that the iPad’s “cannibalisation†of the PC and netbook market has lessened somewhat, with those who have bought their iPad more recently less likely to have chosen to buy an iPad instead of buying a PC, which was more the case with early adopters. According to NPD’s report, only 14 percent of early iPad adopters (classed as those who have owned an iPad for six months or more) decided not to buy a PC after buying their iPad. Not a particularly big figure anyway, it has to be said, and it falls to 12 percent for those who bought their iPad in the holiday season. For netbooks, the drop in the rate of cannibalisation is even bigger, down by 50 percent for recent iPad buyers in comparison to early adopters.
"The explosion of computer sales when Windows 7 launched, as well as the huge increase in netbook sales at that time, are much more to blame for weak consumer PC sales growth than the iPad," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. "Overall it appears that the vast majority of iPad purchases to-date have been incremental to the consumer technology industry. The conventional wisdom that says tablet sales are eating into low- priced notebooks is most assuredly incorrect," continued Baker. "The over $500 Windows consumer notebooks market is where PC sales have been impacted the most, with a 25 percent decline from October 2010 to March 2011.â€
In its report, NPD says that it’s actually more likely that iPad sales have added billions of dollars to the industry’s funds following years of ASP declines draining the market.
Source: AppleInsider | NPD: iPad cannibalization of PC market has slowed, NPD