14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that whatever optimism IT players had in regards to the mobile PC market have rather sagged over the past month, with changing market conditions now prompting changes in expectations.
That the tablet market was not being very kind to laptops is something that has been common knowledge for months.
Still, even with the negative effect on netbook sales, the overall impact on the laptop industry was believed to be minor.
Turns out, however, that makers and suppliers of mobile personal computers are even less optimistic about their prospects as far as 2011 as a whole is concerned.
As revealed in a report by Digitimes, the likes of Quanta Computer, Wistron and Compal are all more conservative than expectant.
Debt problems in Europe are one of the main causes for this downward adjustment in forecasts, while consumer purchasing could drop in the US because of unemployment.
Granted, the thanksgiving shopping season and the fact that the back to school period should entice more sales could counterbalance the issues, somewhat.
Nevertheless, the sales ratio of notebooks for the first and second halves of the years will be around 50:50 instead of 40:60, even though the latter has more lengthy shopping season periods.
The situation, one might say, wasn't so hard to understand after Acer's own expectations turned out to be sliding down.
Still, the fact is that said company is even expecting its tablet sales to suffer in 2011, although notebooks are still the main cause of worry.
Now, consumers are no doubt busy examining the newly launched Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and waiting for the likes of Amazon and B&N's own slate-type electronics, not just the Lenovo, Dell and HP ones.
Either way, the second half of the ongoing year should see quite the competition starting up between the various factions.