Deutsche Bank announced on Monday that Apple’s new 64-bit iPads will put a lot of pressure on PC shipments over the next few years.
They are cutting their estimates for PC growth, due to the upcoming 64-bit iPads cornering of the coveted market. Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank reports that estimates for 2013 and 2014 PC shipments have been cut to <10% and <8% year to year respectively, from previous estimates of <8% and <6% in a note to investors.
He goes on to say ” We expect growing desktop virtualization and iPad deployments in the enterprise to pressure corporate PC sales through 2014-15…We expect Apple’s iPad refresh to include 64 bit architecture, which should enable a greater array of enterprise App development and facilitate greater enterprise penetration over time . In the near term, back to school PC demand appears relatively soft and recent new hardware releases (Haswell) had little impact spurring incremental demand. Furthermore, we believe the corporate upgrade cycle will peak in [second half of calendar year 2013] as corporates complete Win 7 transitions ahead of Microsoft’s ending support of XP in early 2014″.
There is an expectation that the upcoming iPad 5 and future versions of the iPad Min will be using the 64-bit A7 processor.
But fear not, the PC market is expected to counter Apple and Android tablets, with Ultrabooks that are priced similarly to the prices of Tablets.
Whitmore said, “Heading into the holidays, we expect PC vendors to increasingly position Win 8 Ultrabooks against tablets on an ASP [average selling price] basis (i.e. <$500 Ultrabooks).”
Selling Ultrabooks at these prices are bound to show some issues. “We expect sub-$500 Ultrabooks to create additional PC ASP & profitability headwinds.”
New Windows 8.1 Ultrabooks are being marketed as a cross between a laptop and a tablet that offer the best of both. Traditional Ultrabooks are also going to be coming with touch screens.
