The tablet market may not be doing as well as we thought, according to analyst Ashok Kumar of Investment bank Rodman and Renshaw. Even though tablet sales are predicted to take a chunk out of netbook sales over the next five years, this past quarter has indicated that only 3% of sales corresponds to tablets. This small number could indicate that consumers are opting to buy inexpensive netbooks or smartphones.
While Samsung has a target of 6 million tablets sold for 2010, Kumar stated that sales have slowed down to the point that they have cut production by 50%. If production has been cut back, they might not be able to reach their goal. A cut in production might also mean that a new version (WiFi?) might be coming before year’s end and they want to make sure they have their resources, where needed. Either way, Samsung has yet to respond to the report and it will be interesting to see what is said.