Philip Elmer-DeWitt:
What caught my eye, however, was what her proprietary research shows about the impact of the iPad and other tablets on the broader gadget market, starting with netbooks. As her chart (above) shows, sales growth of these low-cost, low-powered computing devices peaked last summer at an astonishing 641% year-over-year growth rate. It fell off a cliff in January and shrank again in April — collateral damage, according to Huberty, from the January introduction and April launch of the iPad.
Be sure to take a look at the chart he has, I don’t think the drop off is solely due to the iPad. I think we are looking at two things happening simultaneously here. 1) The iPad is about the same price and a lot better. 2) People are realizing that netbooks are junk and that they should either by a full sized laptop or nothing at all.