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.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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jacobdrj Tablets have a place. So do netbooks. They are niches. Nothing wrong with a product filling a niche...Reply -
wcnighthawk No way!! They're supposed to replace desktops lololololololololololololReply
Well, so much for that. -
dread_cthulhu Well... I hope acer doesn't decide to stop producing tablets because of this. The IconiaTab is one of the better designed tablets on the market that I've found.Reply -
legacy7955 wcnighthawkNo way!! They're supposed to replace desktops lololololololololololololWell, so much for that.Reply
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. -
cknobman What a coincidence right before Acer launches its new ultrabook they make a statement like this.Reply
WOW NEVER SAW THIS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -
patfactorx Wait ur telling me a $500 device that isnt as entertaining as my $500 Samsung LCD is a gimmick!?Reply -
sonofliberty08 junior noob - tabletReply
senior noob - netbook
entry level/normal user - notebook
normal/high end user - desktopprofessional - workstation
enterprise/corporation - server
science/military - super computer
they all got their place , desktop won't be replace :) -
zorky9 sonofliberty08junior noob - tabletsenior noob - netbookentry level/normal user - notebooknormal/high end user - desktopprofessional - workstationenterprise/corporation - serverscience/military - super computer they all got their place , desktop won't be replaceReply
iDiot - Ap...
:) can't help it...