Apple:King Of Tablets

We published a story earlier on projections from Goldman Sachs that tablets are rapidly cannibalizing PC sales.  That story focused on the possible winners from such a shift in the market.
More research on tablet computing was released  from ChangeWave, underscoring the growth in tablet computing, but revealing some interesting data about the tablet market.
ChangeWave reports that 7% of corporate respondents to its survey of 1,641 corporate IT buyers now provide employees with tablets. The iPad from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) leads overwhelmingly, with 82% of sales. The Slate from Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) has grabbed 11% of the market and the Streak from Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) gets 7%.
Some 97% of corporate iPad users are satisfied with their tablets, while Dell Streak users report 74% satisfaction and H-P Slate users report 69% satisfaction.
The number of corporations that will provide employees with tablets in the first quarter of 2011 is expected to double, from the current 7% to 14%, with the iPad garnering 78% of the projected sales. Dell and Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) each can expect 9% of tablet sales, while H-P can look forward to 8% and Samsung can expect 4%. The RIM PlayBook tablet is not expected to be available until late in the first quarter, but the vast corporate base the company has built with its Blackberry smartphones gives it some automatic credibility in the market.
When ChangeWave asked what corporate users do with their tablets, an astonishing 38% said that the devices replaced their laptops. That number matches almost exactly with the 35% cannibalization of PC sales that Goldman analysts see as tablets become more pervasive. Corporate employees use their tablets for internet access, email, working remotely, sales support, and presentations — all uses once within the realm of laptops.
If reports of laptops being replaced by tablets continue to be published at the rate of at least two a day, pretty soon we’ll all be believers. Notice, though, that no one claimed to use a tablet for writing chores. We pixel-stained wretches are probably going to be the last holdouts for laptops and PCs.
Paul Ausick