Tablet PCs still bitter pill to swallow

Tablet PCs are proving to be a bitter pill for the market to swallow, as notebooks continue to out-ship tablets by more than 100 to one.

According to market data from Canalys, fewer than 35,000 tablets were shipped in the second quarter of this year, compared to 3.6 million notebooks that were shipped in same period - and the ratio is not decreasing.

"There is clear demand for increased workforce mobility. We continue to see it in the sales of notebooks, handhelds and smartphones," said Mike Welch, Canalys vice president, in a statement.

"But the tablet PC is not riding that wave nearly as well as it should, particularly outside the US, where customer requirements - for example, in language recognition and country-specific vertical applications - are much more fragmented."

According to the Canalys research, almost two-fifths of channel firms believe lower prices will make the biggest difference to their tablet PC sales, with another third demanding more tablet-specific applications.

Only 12 per cent of resellers believe the tablet PC will fail outright.

The study found HP to be the tablet market leader in the second quarter of the year, though its share fell slightly from a year ago as Acer, Fujitsu Siemens and Toshiba all outpaced it in terms of growth.