Tablets may not actually be responsible for falling PC sales

It’s been widely publicized that high iPad and tablet sales have been behind the dwindling amount of PC’s sold, but that may be far from the truth. According to a survey conducted by NPD, originally inflated figures may be the actual culprit behind the drop in numbers.

According to the report, the fact that the tablet boom coincided with the launch of Windows 7 could have created a set of false numbers.                 

"The explosion of computer sales when Windows 7 launched, as well as the huge increase in netbook sales at that time, are much more to blame for weak consumer PC sales growth than the iPad" said Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis at NPD.

Furthermore, only 14% of early iPad owners decided to abandon PC purchases and that number further dropped to 12% over the past holiday season. In addition, the research firm is also reporting that 75 percent of consumers who purchased iPads weren’t planning on buying anything else anyways.

As for the actual PC numbers, it appears as if the sub-$500 segment of Windows notebooks grew a full 21% in the 6 months preceding March 2011, while the pricier over-$500 portion of the market noticed a 25 percent decline in sales over the same time period.

Although everybody would love to blame Apple and tablets for the decreasing PC figures, it might simply be a case of users having recently purchased a Windows 7 PC and waiting for the next cycle of products. And while there’s no denying that an increased interest in tablets has affected PC sales, the actual effect might not be as bad as was previously assumed.

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