Death of laptops greatly exaggerated, Best Buy boss insists

Not dead after all

Best Buy's boss has downplayed reports that iPads are eating half of all laptop sales.

Brian Dunn was quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying that internal estimates revealed iPad sales "had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50%".

In a statement last week Dunn referred to Mark Twain's comment on hearing that his obituary had been published: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Dunn said: "The reports of the demise of these devices are grossly exaggerated. While they were fueled in part by a comment in the Wall Street Journal that was attributed to me, they are not an accurate depiction of what we're currently seeing. In fact, we see some shifts in consumption patterns, with tablet sales being an incremental opportunity." The company suggested that some would-be netbook buyers were choosing iPads instead, but did not provide numbers.

He said the firm believed a range of computers would continue to remain popular gifts for Christmas and so the store would continue to stock a range of products. ®