Apple iPad Outsold by Netbooks: 2011 Sales forecast

With just days to go until the Apple iPad ships to its first batch of customers, we begin to question how much of an impact the tablet device will have on the netbook market. Current sales look very good for the iPad, but we wonder if the momentum can be kept up for a long period of time?

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad back in January, he said that the tablet device would bridge the gap between the smartphone and the netbook – although he did say that netbook sales have peaked and would start to fall in the coming years.

PC World thought that they would take a closer look at future sales of both products, and see how the two compare. They did note that if Apple continues with its high price of the iPad, then sales could be affected.

EETimes has been looking at a recent IDC report, which shows that the iPad will still sell well in 2011, but netbooks sales will be much higher. IDC believes that iPad sales for 2011 will be 15 million, compared to 47 million for netbooks. We do have to take into consideration that the iPad is just one device – compared to the huge amount of netbooks on offer from Dell, Acer, HP, Samsung, LG ASUS and many more.

Apple has a long way to go if they ever hope of changeling netbook sales with their iPad. However, we should never underestimate Apple, as we did with the iPod and the iPhone – we do not have to add any more to that.