It Finally Happened, Tablets Outsold Netbooks

Tablets haven't managed to actually get close to outselling laptops overall, but they did, apparently, already push netbooks aside, in a manner of speaking, according to ABI Research.

Tablets were described, by some, as a threat to the continued sales of netbooks ever since they first showed up.

At first, many said there wasn't much chance of tablets proving to be so formidable but, obviously, they were proven wrong.

In fact, ABI Research discovered that netbooks are no longer in just the danger of selling less than tablets (13.6 million tablets sold in the second quarter, as opposed to 7.3 million netbooks).

Then again, the analysts did also say that this isn't actually indicative of netbooks being pushed out of the market.

Instead, consumers are just seeing tablets as the more attractive device, for the moment at any rate.

Other than that, the two devices aren't considered mutually exclusive, though this might change if tablets begin to adopt detachable keyboards more often.

On the flip side, netbooks have gone through several price cuts, so they are quite a bit cheaper that tablets, for the most part (not that it will ever get it back higher in terms of popularity).

“This is a trend that we do not expect will reverse,” says Jeff Orr, group director, mobile devices. “As they are different segments, this is not a direct replacement behavior, but a changing of leadership for the most interesting device type.”

Of course, Apple's iPad 2 stole most of the limelight, since it accounted for 68% of the media tablet sales during the second quarter of 2011. Then again, Android tablets aren't very few either.

“Media tablets are perceived to be easy to use, compared to the keyboard and mouse interface of a netbook computer. Those who have avoided PCs because they are difficult to use – think the Baby Boomer generation and older – see media tablets as an opportunity to re-engage with Internet access. Cost, however, is certainly not a reason driving tablet interest, as the average media tablet costs approximately $600 and the average netbook is only about half of that,” says Orr.