So far, iPad buyers are heavily skewed to 30-somethings and 40-somethings who presumably are well along in their careers and have both the appetite and the means to splurge on one.
Some technology observers have been predicting the demise of the netbook for some months, and with the launch of the Apple iPad, we get our first chance to see whether cannibalization is happening.
The basic line of thinking is that netbooks get squeezed between more powerful smartphones and tablet devices such as the iPad.
A new study from Morgan Stanley concludes that tablets in general will be a big threat to netbooks, as some have suggested.
Netbook sales growth has been significantly flatter lately. Sales still are increasing, just not at the rate they were before. Last July, growth was at 641 percent. In December, growth was 179 percent, and in January it dropped to 68 percent.
According to Morgan Stanley/Alphawise, the biggest product category likely to be cannibalized by potential iPad customers is netbooks and laptops. About 44 percent of potential iPad customers say they'll get it instead of a notebook or, presumably, netbook.
About 27 percent said they'd buy an iPad over a desktop.
To be sure, netbook sales were slowing before the iPad launch, so the slowing netbook growth rate can't be blamed completely on the iPad.
Still, it seems inevitable that netbooks and other cheap ultraportables will face competition from the iPad.
Product cannibalization potential
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