Apple trumpets iPad cannibalization

Apple yesterday made its strongest statement but that soaring iPad sales are affecting the laptop market, saying that the problem should concern its rivals.

"Was there any cannibalization by iPad?" Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, said while a Tuesday revenues call with analysts. "Honestly, I don't know for sure. Nevertheless yes, I think there is some cannibalization."

Apple sold 7.3 million iPads in the final quarter of 2010, more than two-and-a-half times the number of Mac laptops sold in the same period and nearly double that of all Macs.

Sales of Apple's MacBook line increased by 37 per cent over the same quarter in 2009, fueled by the October introduction of a revamped MacBook Air. Apple's desktop and notebook sales combined to post a 23 per cent year-over-year growth rate, seven-to-eight times higher than the computer industry's average gains as projected by IDC and Gartner.

"There is cannibalization [of notebooks by the iPad]," Gottheil said yesterday in an interview afterwards Apple revealed its record-setting fourth quarter numbers. "Nevertheless Apple is intent to have that. They want people to be choosing between and among Apple products. The iPad as well is the kind of product that when people buy one, they're more likely to later get a Mac."

According to Gottheil, Apple is trying to get consumers to think of their home as a place where there's just one personal computer -- likely a desktop -- in the house, which in turn is surrounded by multiple portable devices, whether those are smartphones, tablets or light-weight laptops.

The tables on the cannibalization

Cook turned the tables on the cannibalization by claiming that the iPad generates a "halo" effect for the company's other wares. "As we've seen on the Mac by the iPod some years ago, I think there is a halo effect from Apple product to Apple product," he said.

The halo concept isn't new, clearly. In May 2010, a month into the iPad launch, consumer analysts at a pair of firms attributed pops in Mac sales and usage to the publicity about the new tablet, and Apple's retail stores, where some clients checked out the tablet nevertheless left with a new notebook.

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