Wondering why almost every major PC maker has announced plans to bring a tablet computer to market soon? It’s not just because it’s an emerging product category representing a huge source of untapped revenue. It’s also because companies fear that if they don’t have a tablet to offer, they’ll lose money since tablet computers may be eating into notebook sales.

Speaking to analysts yesterday, HP exec Todd Bradley said that sales of tablets from rival companies (read: the Apple iPad) have likely affected notebook sales.

Of course, HP isn’t offering any hard numbers to prove that tablets are really to blame. And it’s perfectly possible that the reason notebook sales are slowing is because the market for netbooks — a huge growth area over the past few years — is saturated, as I suggested a few days ago.

But HP is hedging its bets. The company is expected to launch a Windows slate PC by the end of the year, with a WebOS tablet on track for early 2011.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

2 replies on “HP: Tablets are eating into notebook sales”

  1. If HP had not put their Windows based tablet on the back burner for so long it would be on the market by now and probably selling.

    Now it is catch-up time and they are a day late and a dollar short. To add insult to injury their WebOS tablet is being released after the Holiday shopping season and during the Income Tax season.
    Absolutely Brilliant who ever decided on this release time frame should be fired.

    I don’t/can’t feel sorry for HP since it is their own fault. I have my HP dv8 notebook and love it, but want a HP Windows based tablet to compliment it.

Comments are closed.