KOCHI: Keeping pace with the growing technology, the devices are getting smaller by the day. Just as desktops were replaced by laptops, which in turn fell prey to the invasion of netbooks, tablet PCs have come to dominate the gadget market.And in the commercial capital of Kerala, low-cost tablets are riding the crest of the latest trend. Industry observers point out that tablet PC sales will skip way ahead of traditional PC sales in the next few years. Major players in the IT hardware market have already stopped producing netbooks or have withdrawn from the market.“Only two or three companies such as Asuz and Samsung still remain in the market with their range of netbooks,” said A Faisal, managing director of a leading computer shop in the city.However, he maintained that there still is a demand for netbooks because of the ease of use that a device of its size offers.“Low price was the major attraction for netbooks. Earlier, a net book was available at a range of `11000 -`15000. Now a tablet, which is a hand-held device, is available for the same price. With this, the netbook price went up to `20,000, the starting price for a base model laptop,” Faisal said.According to him, a good tablet is not available at `15,000. The price of tablets of premium brands remain high and is not going to come down, he said. According to the latest market research reports in the IT and internet industry, tablet sales will hit nearly 500 million units a year by 2015. Tablet sales in 2015 will exceed the number of PCs currently sold per year (360 million) and make tablets a $100+ billion market. The growth will be driven by falling prices combined with tablet penetration in the enterprise and education markets, as well as emerging markets.Meanwhile, Sitaram Venkat, director of enterprise business solutions of Dell India, said that the segment of netbook does not bring much fortune for the manufacturers.Dell had withdrawn from the netbook market a few months back, Venkat said.
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