Back in 2010, when netbooks were the fastest-growing segment of the computer market and were selling millions, Steve Jobs defied the trend of the time and decided that Apple would not make a netbook.
Instead, it introduced the iPad, and over the past three years, it and other tablets have completely killed netbooks. In fact, in 2010, 32 million netbooks were sold. Three years later? Only 10% of them were sold, and by 2015 they will be completely dead.
The data comes from IHS iSuppli and shows how abruptly netbooks died in the iPad era.
As we mentioned above, 32 million netbooks were sold in 2010. In 2012, 14.13 million were sold, in 2013 so far only 3.97 million have been sold, while by 2015, according to iSuppli, none will be sold.
We're not surprised. The reason netbooks were popular is because they were portable, had up to 10 hours of battery life, cost under $500, and could do simple things like get online. However, they were slow, clunky, and had a very small keyboard that was not very comfortable. The iPad is much better than a netbook at what a netbook tries to do.
Dimitrios Georgoulas @ GreekAppleNews
