During the Apple’s earnings call this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked if he thought the tablet and traditional notebook computing markets would converge. Intel currently is ramping up its Ultrabook concept, which includes hybrid tablet and notebook designs.
“You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user,” Cook said.
Cook stressed that it is Apple’s view that the tablet market is huge. The iPad has been successful in the consumer, enterprise and education markets so far and meaningful applications keep being developed. Cook noted that in two years of availability, Apple has sold 67 million iPads.
“To put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs and 5 years for that many iPods and over 3 years for that many iPhones,” Cook said. “And we were extremely happy with the trajectory on all of those products.”
As iPad shipments accelerate to the point where the number of tablets equal the size of the PC market, some lines of convergence might be crossed, according to Cook.
“Now having said that, I also believe that there is a very good market for the MacBook Air, and we continue to innovate in that product,” Cook said.
Read the full story at Datamation:
Apple: Notebook and Tablet Markets Will Not Converge
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
