iPad eating into laptop sales?

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Brian Dunn, the chief executive of Best Buy, said that sales of laptops have halved since Apple launched the iPad on 3 April, according to an internal estimate.

The retailer said that people are willing to fork out $499 for an iPad because the device is very important to their lives.

While the iPad is great for surfing the Internet and relaxing with an e-book or movie, it can’t compete with a laptop for working on complex spreadsheets or long documents.

At it wouldn’t be the tool of choice for work, it seems strange that it is having such a dramatic effect on laptop market.

Where the iPad is really making waves is in the netbook market.

A recent report from Morgan Stanley notes a steady decline in netbook sales since the iPad was announced in January, while in August, Asus revealed that it sold less netbooks in Q2 than it sold in Q1 and expected the decline to continue into the third quarter.