FW: Newsbank - Tablets' growth rate to pass laptops over next 5 years

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寄件者: Roger Knott (MKT-US)
傳送日期: Friday, August 27, 2010 12:25:02 AM
收件者: Newsbank
主旨: Newsbank - Tablets' growth rate to pass laptops over next 5 years
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/26/BUUD1F35MG.DTL&tsp=1

 

Tablet computers forecast to outpace laptops

Greg Bensinger, Bloomberg News

Thursday, August 26, 2010

AT&T Inc.'s chief device strategist, who oversees the carrier's relationship with Cupertino's Apple Inc., said tablet computers costing as much as $1,000 might soon make many laptops obsolete.

"You're going to see those 10-inch pieces of glass become full-on computers," Glenn Lurie, president of emerging devices, said in an interview this month in Atlanta. He said he expected there to be a variety of tablet computers costing $300 to $1,000 in the next five years. The iPad ranges in price from $499 to $829.

AT&T may draw more revenue by compelling new and existing customers to buy tablet computers that will complement their smart phones. The carrier is the exclusive data-service provider for the iPad, which has sold more than 3 million units since its April 3 introduction.

Sales of tablet devices probably will grow to 23 percent of the U.S. computer market by 2015, from about 6 percent this year and less than 1 percent in 2009, said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.

"Starting in 2012, tablets will outsell netbooks, and by 2014, more consumers will use tablets than will use netbooks," Epps, referring to the smaller, less-powerful laptop-style computers, said in a report this month.

The range of tablets is already growing this year. Research In Motion Ltd. is planning to introduce in November a tablet computer with a 9.7-inch screen and Wi-Fi capability, according to two people familiar with the company's plans. Verizon Wireless and Mountain View's Google Inc. have discussed a tablet that would run on Android software, and Dell Inc. released its $299.99 Streak 5-inch tablet this month.

"There's going to be a huge number of tablets, different sizes, different functions," Ralph de la Vega, chief executive officer of AT&T mobility, said in an interview in Atlanta. He declined to say if AT&T would offer the planned Research In Motion device on its network.

This article appeared on page D - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/26/BUUD1F35MG.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0xjJViDIM

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