The prospects for tablet PCs are looking bleak as the 'crazy days' of laptop sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) have returned, according to analyst IDC.

Tablet PC sales fell by 31 per cent in the second quarter of 2003 on first quarter shipments of less than 30,000. Tablet sales accounted for less than one per cent of the total PC market.

Andy Brown, analyst at IDC, said: "I do not expect [tablet PCs] to account for more than three per cent of the total notebook market this year."

In contrast, notebook sales jumped 39 per cent in the same quarter.

"Fierce competition in the notebook sector is holding back the take-up of tablet PCs, and now is a good time to buy a notebook because prices have fallen dramatically," said Brown.

"People are sticking to a technology they understand, and if tablets are to take off the industry needs to explain the usefulness of handwriting recognition."

He said price reductions have begun in the tablet market as vendors prepare for the next wave of Tablet PCs based on Intel's Centrino processor.