Acer Says Tablet Fever is Already Cooling Down
Consumer demand for tablets is seemingly diminishing as they turn their eyes to Ultrabooks heading to the market beginning next month.
Acer chairman JT Wang said on Friday that "tablet fever" is already starting to cool down, and that consumers are looking to notebooks again thanks to Intel's Ultrabook design and the intriguing features Windows 8 promises to bring to the PC sector next year. Acer came to this conclusion thanks to recent surveys which have indicated that consumers have a high interest in Intel's sleek Ultrabook form-factor.
Other players in the PC sector reportedly share the same opinion: that tablets are mainly marketed for entertainment purposes and will eventually reach market saturation. Once that happens, consumer desire to replace their notebooks and/or desktops with tablets will diminish. Tablet volumes will then reach a certain level and sales will stagnate.
The release of new OS is also expected to drive stronger sales for notebooks than tablets, especially during the back-to-school season of 2012. But that remains to be seen: the market hasn't really experienced what Microsoft has in store for consumers other than glimpsing at a quad-core prototype during Microsoft’s recent TechEd New Zealand conference. Windows 8 could change the way we interact with tablets, or it could merely be just another OS on another non-Android, non-iOS tablet.
As reported earlier, Acer is slated to launch an Ultrabook during September for as low as $799 USD. Asus is also offering a similar product in September, and will be followed by Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard (HP) in Q4 2011 or Q1 2012.
Friday Acer president Jim Wong added that Ultrabooks will only account for a portion of the notebook shipments in 2011, but the numbers are expected to increase to somewhere around 25 to 35-percent in 2012. Intel previously predicted that Ultrabook shipments would reach 40-percent by the end of 2012.
senior noob - netbook
entry level/normal user - notebook
normal/high end user - desktop
professional - workstation
enterprise/corporation - server
science/military - super computer
they all got their place , desktop won't be replace
iDiot - Ap...
Well, so much for that.
It's always nice to see the "media agenda machine" defeated by reality!
The PC is popular because nothing else can even come close to replacing it, and it is a great value and easily upgraded. The tablet is none of those things and never will be for the foreseeable future.
WOW NEVER SAW THIS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
senior noob - netbook
entry level/normal user - notebook
normal/high end user - desktop
professional - workstation
enterprise/corporation - server
science/military - super computer
they all got their place , desktop won't be replace
iDiot - Ap...
senior noob - netbook
entry level/normal user - notebook
normal/high end user - desktop
professional - workstation
enterprise/corporation - server
science/military - super computer
they all got their place , desktop won't be replace
Never really liked tablets or netbooks... but a niche exists for a reason. I just don't get it I guess. Never really understood the appeal of watching movies on such a small screen. Why've we been spending so many years making bigger and bigger monitors and TVs just to get a miniature screen? I honestly know someone who spends more time sitting in their house looking at their little tablet screen watching movies than the 52" in thier living room.
Interesting use of the word 'noob'. I approve. ^.^
But that's just me.
that pretty much sums it up. but in a few years time i just see people buying desktops just to be a media server and use a laptop for everything else. and to be clear i am talking about the mainstream consumers. gamers are still going to buy desktop over laptops just because theres more upgradeable options with them
It has to do with privacy and portability. There are those of us who don't need any processing power, outside of the ability to do word processing, and some 'break time' entertainment. Some of us need battery life, not raw power and size. Sometimes you need a scalpel, not a sledgehammer...