Acer's PC share took a huge dive. Recesson? Nope? Intense competition from HP and Dell? Not exactly. But there was competition in a big way and it was called the iPad. The top 3 PC makers in the world were hit and hit hard as both Dell and HP lost 2% and 3% respectively while Acer, who relied on netbook sales, has seen a dramatic collapse.
Acer's problem being netbooks exacerbated its fall but the market as a whole has taken a hit from the hottest new mobile phenomenon. And let's be honest here. Analysts and what-have-you will call it the tablet market but it's really just the iPad After all, during this dramatic fall on PC sales, it was pretty much just the iPad owning 80-90% of the tablet market.
In the next 12-18 months, we'll start to see the iPad's share as a percentage of tablet sold (not pushed out to vendors) drop. Then we can truly call the tablet market for what it is.
And in 12-18 months, I fully expect more shrinkage in the PC, specifically, the laptop market, as iPad and Android devices really take it to the PC guys.
For instance, Acer's Inconia will debut in a couple of weeks for just $450 with similar specs to the Xoom. And not only that, it'll likely drop to about $399 by Christmas.
If you're an average Joe consumer looking for a secondary device to use for day-to-day computing, surfing the web, checking e-mails, updating your social networks, you're gonna want to pick up a tablet. Plus, the 8-10 hours of battery life is a better bet when than the 2-4 hours you get on a low-end laptop.
And look for PC sales drop to accelerate as corporate drones are issued iPads in place of HP or Dell laptops. And it's going to happen. Why do you think HP in such a rush to push out the Web OS Touchpad. Why do you think a "half-baked" Playbook from RIM with missing apps is going on sale in a couple of weeks?
I think it's too early to call it but tablets in general are making a convincing case that it will replace PCs in homes and offices.
More at Arstechnica and All Things D.
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