The netbook craze has come and gone, according to a new report from IHS iSuppli. The diminutive, low-power laptops will see shipments plummet this year, IHS says, with the category very much dead in two years’ time. The main culprit in the netbook’s demise: Apple’s iPad.
“Netbooks shot to popularity immediately after launch because they were optimized for low cost,” IHS analyst Craig Stice says in the firm’s new report, pointed out by the Los Angeles Times. “However, netbooks began their descent into oblivion with the introduction in 2010 of Apple’s iPad.”
The netbook category peaked in 2010 with 32.14 million units shipped. IHS’ report has the industry shipping 3.97 million netbooks in 2013. That’s down 72 percent from 2012’s 14.13 million units.
The news only gets worse for the category. IHS projects 264,000 netbooks shipped in 2014. By 2015, IHS sees no netbooks shipped. Most major manufacturers have already abandoned or are in the process of halting netbook production.
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