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Analyst: Tablet set to cannibalize sales of netbooks, laptops

July 13, 2010 — 5:24am ET | By Paul Mah

A new report by Barclays Capital concluded that 15 million tablet computers will be purchased by consumers this year, and that number is expected to grow to 28 million next year. This figure will come at the expense of PC and netbook sales, however. For now, the accuracy of this year's forecast is probably dependent upon the sales of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) wildly successful iPad, though it is not hard to see tablet sales taking off.

And many computer makers are jumping on the tablet bandwagon, too. Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) just two weeks ago announced its Android-based Cius tablet that the company says is targeted squarely at businesses, while HP (NYSE: HPQ) has practically confirmed that there will be a webOS-based tablet--possible now thanks to its acquisition of beleaguered Palm. Even RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) is said to be working on a tablet that can be tethered to a BlackBerry smartphone; while a Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android tablet has been reported to be coming as well.

Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes thinks that the surge of interest in tablets will see the low-end laptop and netbook market cannibalized. In addition, Barclays has also slashed its PC forecast down by 2 percent to 19 percent this year. And yes, Barclays also thinks that HP may well emerge as the number two player in the tablet market. What about you, have you bought a tablet yet?

For more on this story:
- check out the article at CNET News
- check out the article at InformationWeek