Doomsayers predicting the demise of the notebook PC might be wrong-- IHS iSuppli predicts the "notebook market will live to fight another day," saying WW shipments will reach 325M by 2015.
The 2015 forecast is up 105M from the total iSuppli predicts for 2011 shipments-- 220M.
While the notebook market will receive a bit of a beating from tablets (with shipments slowing down), the platform will retain a key role, especially in enterprise segments.
The analyst also describes notebooks as "a useful tool that has become an essential part of modern life-- rather than a luxury item."
Notebook will remain superior platforms for content creation taks (rich document building, video and photo editing), and thus the notebook PC market will continue being "an important, expanding" (if slowing down) market.
However, netbooks will receive quite the battering from tablets-- with shipments declining to 12.5M in 2011, before dwindling down to 13.5M in 2015. The decline of the once-hot segment is due to netbooks providing a similar user experience to tablets as highly portable multimedia consumption devices.
Tables will go from strength to strength-- iSuppli predicts WW tablet shipments will reach 60M in 2011, with 250% Y-o-Y growth, and expects tablet shipments to reach 275M in 2015.
Tablet PCs will also grow following the 2012 launch of the tablet-oriented Windows 8, with shipments reaching 45.2M by 2015.
Go Despite Media Tablet Inroads, the Notebook PC Lives On (IHS iSuppli)
