Tablets shipments to hit 79.6 million by 2012 as netbooks sales fall back

While most analysts are willing to bet tablet sales will rise over the coming years, less take time to explain just which rival products will be hit as a result.

The latest estimates from JPMorgan for the tablet market which suggest annual shipments will rise from 47.9 million in 2011 to 79.6 million the following year - come with just such a caveat.

Rather than expanding on the entertainment base iPad and co. have made their home, growth will increasingly come with an enterprise bent, cannibalising sales of netbooks and notebooks as the months pass.

Battles for business

"We expect tablets to have an increasingly negative impact on PC shipments," JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz told Reuters.

"More than 35 percent of tablets sold in 2012 will be cannibalistic, particularly as relates to netbooks and notebooks."

As well as impacting on the PC market, it also suggests the nature of the average tablet consumer is set to change the question of whether this will, in turn, affect the kind of apps consumers have an appetite for will be a pertinent one for developers as the market expands.

Surging shipments

Nonetheless, JP Morgan has raised its estimates for the tablet market from $24.9 billion to $26.1 billion for 2011.

Similarly, 2012's estimates have also been bumped, from $34.1 billion to $35.2 billion. The firm expects 2011 unit shipments of 47.9 million, up from its previous prediction of 46.1 million.

For 2012 it sees unit shipments of 79.6 million, up from 78.2 million a raise that reflects JPMorgan's belief that tablet prices in general are set to fall in the third and fourth quarters of 2011.

[source: Reuters]