Notebook market still alive

4-Traders reports.

Notebook shipments are expected to rise by 100 million units by 2015, partly because of the rising sales of PC tablets, according to new IHS iSuppli Compute Platforms Service research from information and analysis provider, HIS.

Worldwide notebook unit shipments are expected to rise to 324.9 million in 2015, up 104.8 million from 220.1 million in 2011. Although annual notebook shipment growth will slow during the coming years because of rising tablet competition, the notebook market will continue to expand because of the key role the platform plays among businesses and consumers.

“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,” Hot Hardware quotes Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms research at HIS, as saying.

“Compared to the consumption-oriented media tablets, notebooks are superior platforms for content-creation tasks, ranging from developing Web sites, to building rich documents, to editing high-definition videos and photos. Because of this, the notebook PC will continue to be an important, expanding market, even if its sales growth will be slower than it was in the past.”

According to TG Daily, Wilkins noted that netbooks have fared even worse than notebooks in the tablet age. After enjoying double-digit growth from 2008 through 2010, netbook shipments are set to decline to 21.5 million units in 2011, down 33.2% from 32 million in 2010. Shipments are expected to decrease further during the coming years, eventually dwindling to 13.5 million units in 2015.

“A similar user experience to that of the netbook is offered by the media tablet, with both being highly portable platforms allowing convenient consumption of multimedia content, whether offline or online,” said Wilkins.