Tablet trauma
The sales of traditional networks have slumped in recent months with analysts pointing the finger at highly desirable tablets.
Various reports have noticed a strong correlation between rising sales of tablets, most notably Apple's iPad and the decline of laptops.
Fortune spotted a chart put together by Morgan Stanley demonstrating the ‘tablet cannibalisation' of the last 9 months, which it believes is partly due to the success of Apple's iPad.
The chart is said to draw on NPD data showing that retail notebook growth slumped by 4 percent over a year in August after six months of increasingly slow growth.
Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn has added weight to the assumption that tablets are hitting laptop sales hard as he told The Wall Street Journal: "internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50 percent."
He said the chain is moving towards selling more mobile gadgets such as tablets and e-readers instead of TVs, desktop PCs and bulky stereo systems.
"People are willing to disproportionately spend for these devices because they are becoming so important to their lives," he reportedly said.
Best Buy, which has recently moved into the UK and reportedly has ambitious high street plans, gained over 60 percent in its Q2 profits and credited devices like the iPad and the Kindle with boosting its sales. Consequently the Stateside electronics giant said it will expand iPad distribution to all of its US stores by the end of September.
