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Tablet sales could beat laptops in U.S.

An Apple employee shows an iPad 2 to customers waiting in line outside of the Apple Store's Lincoln Park location on March 11, 2011 in Chicago. UPI/Brian Kersey
1 of 4 | An Apple employee shows an iPad 2 to customers waiting in line outside of the Apple Store's Lincoln Park location on March 11, 2011 in Chicago. UPI/Brian Kersey | License Photo

CUPERTINO, Calif., May 6 (UPI) -- The tablet computer has altered the PC world and tablet sales could outpace laptops in the United States as early as 2012, retailers and manufacturers say.

As manufacturers voice belief about tablets blowing past laptops in U.S. sales next year, retailers are making room to accommodate the tablets at the expense of other computers, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

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Microsoft Corp., which is largely tied to the personal computer, experienced its largest one-day stock drop in two years last week on declining software sales.

And forget netbooks, analysts said, as consumers are gravitating to tablets with their 7-to -10-inch displays instead of the shrunken laptops.

"What the tablet did was completely cannibalize the netbook," said Michael Hurlston, a senior vice president at Broadcom Corp., the California company that supplies microchips to many of the largest computer and tablet manufacturers, including Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif.

Analysts predict 50 million tablets will sell this year worldwide, up from 19 million in 2010. In 2012, that number is projected to hit 100 million.

Laptop sales still dominate globally but in the United States they are expected to be surpassed by tablets, the Times said. In the United States, PC sales fell 11 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier -- the largest drop in nearly a decade.

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Apple, which introduced iPad just over a year ago, is a major beneficiary of the tablet boom. Since introducing the iPad, the company reported $12.4 billion in sales of the device.

The tablet's huge popularity prompted Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive officer, to proclaim a new chapter in computing, calling it "the post-PC era."

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