Canalys estimates a Y-o-Y growth of 14% for the W.W. PC market-- with much of the growth coming from tablet device shipments.
The analyst predicts tablet shipments will grow to 52m in 2011-- with Apple, predictably, taking the winner's crown, as it accounts for over 75% of tablets (leaving 12m units' worth of shipments to be split between other tablet vendors).
The "traditional" PC companies (Microsoft, Intel and AMD in particular) are to lose market share to Apple-- especially with the iPad2's launch.
Canalys sas that ultimately tablets are disrupting the traditional PC market in 2 ways-- customers are extending their existing hardware's life (as they prefer tablet usage) and hindering the notebook segment's growth.
The analyst estimates that for every 10 tablets sold this year W.W., 5 netbook/notebook sales will be lost-- across both consumer and enterprise markets. This trend will occur particularly in European territories like UK, Germany, France, the Nordics and Benelux.
Overstocked retail channels in much of W.Europe will hinder notebook growth-- even if predictions say notebooks will still grow by nearly 8% W.W., thanks to the ongoing Windows 7 refresh.
Netbooks however will decline by 13%-- to 34m units.
Meanwhile the markets in the Middle East and North Africa are currently at a virtual standstill due to the current political revolutions and protests-- and there's no telling how long such disruption will last. Japan's recent natural disasters could also cause some short-term disruptions to the supply chain, but it will take weaks to assess the damage and its consequences.
