Notebook sales dropping in favour of iPad

Apple's iPad has chipped away as much as half of the notebook market, so says Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the head honcho of the electrical retailing empire told the publication that the company's internal estimates show that the iPad is rapidly gaining ground and snapping at the heels of the notebook when it comes to sales.

We're guessing that he may well have been referring to netbooks, rather than full size laptops as it's difficult to see how an iPad could really replace a solid notebook PC. And while the iPad is an impressive piece of kit that continues to sell by the bucketload, we think it wise to take the comments with a pinch of salt, as the death of the laptop computer is not something that we expect to see any time soon.

The company, says Dunn, is giving its stock a thorough overhaul to cater for what he sees as a trend towards portable devices. In the future, Best Buy will stock more e-readers, tablets and smartphones, while scaling down its selection of desktop PCs and HDTVs.