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The former managing director of PC World has predicted that netbooks will cannibalise the traditional computer market, rather than co-exist with it.
Speaking at the Retra conference in London on Friday, Simon Turner told attendees that around 70 per cent of households in the UK already had a PC. However, he warned that that figure was not likely to grow, adding: "what will grow is the number of netbooks".
Turner said that he didn’t feel there was a barrier to the number of netbooks that could be sold, and that while the overall penetration of PCs would remain at 70 per cent of homes, he could see households having more than one netbook per home.
"Households could end up with netbooks, per person, which could then all be connected to the internet," he said.
An analyst from Deloitte echoed Turner’s comments. Telecommunications, media and technology practice partner Dave Tansley told the conference that by the end of 2009, netbooks could represent up to 15 per cent of all computers sold during the year.
He also said that netbooks could break the £100 barrier before the end of the year.
