Analysts predict that netbooks will be gone in 2015

Apr 15, 2013 10:31 GMT  ·  By

Market research firm IHS iSuppli is predicting that the netbook segment will be dead and buried by 2015, something even non-analysts can assess by simply walking into a computer shop today.

But not everybody knows the reason why netbooks have failed.

By 2014, IHS predicts that only 264,000 netbooks will be sold in the entire world. By 2015, there will be none, says the research firm, according to the LA Times.

“Netbooks shot to popularity immediately after launch because they were optimized for low cost, delivering what many consumers believed as acceptable computer performance,” says Craig Stice, IHS analyst.

“However, netbooks began their descent into oblivion with the introduction in 2010 of Apple's iPad,” the analyst adds.

For those who need a history lesson, it was Steve Jobs who took to the stage at a special event in January 2010 and unveiled the iPad as the successor to the traditional computer, the kickstarter of the post-PC era – the tablet computer.

The iPad was actually the first tablet PC that made sense, and it came out about the same time netbook vendors were trying to make a splash with their reduced screen sizes, scaled down keyboards, and clunky PC hardware crammed inside a chassis that only made daily tasks more cumbersome at the expense of portability.

While the iPad itself was a stripped down computer as well, the limited amount of tasks it could accomplish worked as advertised, and that included the 10-hour battery life.

Over the years, the iPad quickly evolved into a much more comprehensive solution for doing work on the go, as well as a good education computer, and a creativity tool.

The iTunes App Store is credited as the primary reason of the tablet’s success, but we should also remember that the iOS operating system is also a driving factor.

If all goes well with the iPad 5 and the iPad mini 2 this year, there’s no doubt that netbooks will see their demise in two years' time.