Despite the growing popularity of the media tablet compare to the mobile PC industry, the worldwide notebook unit shipments are expected to rise to 324.9 million in 2015, up 104.8 million from 220.1 million in 2011, according to new IHS iSuppli Compute Platforms Service research.
The research said during the coming years although growth in notebook shipment per year will be slow because of rising tablet competition, the notebook market will continue to expand because of the key role that the platform plays among businesses and consumers.
IHS principal analyst for compute platforms research Matthew Wilkins said despite the intense competition from media tablets, notebooks remain a useful tool that has become an essential part of modern life – rather than a luxury item said.
"Compared to the consumption-oriented media tablets, notebooks are superior platforms for content creation tasks, ranging from developing websites, to building rich documents, to editing high-definition videos and photos," Wilkins said.
IHS predicts that global media tablet shipments will reach 60 million units in 2011, up 245.9% from 17.4 million in 2010, and expected to increase to 275.3 million in 2015.
"Following the launch of Apple’s iPad and other high-profile devices, consumers have been bombarded with media tablet advertising and press coverage," Wilkins said.
"And with the media tablet portrayed as providing the same capabilities as the notebook PC, consumers are considering media tablets to be an alternative to notebooks. This has caused notebook sales growth to slow down compared to past years."
Posting a double digit growth from 2008 through 2010, netbooks are set to decline to 21.5 million units in 2011, down 33.2% from 32 million in 2010, and will continue to decline to 13.5 million units in 2015.
The PC tablet to date has gained limited penetration into the mainstream business segment compared to the media tablet, as an alternative to the notebook PC.
IHS predicts that growth of PC tablets will begin to accelerate in 2013 – one year after Windows 8 is released – with shipments of 10 million units, and expected to nearly quintuple by 2015, reaching 45.2 million units.
