"The second quarter of 2011 marked the first time global tablet shipments surpassed netbook shipments. According to market research firm ABI Research, second-quarter tablet shipments jumped to 13.6m units, while netbook shipments shrank to 7.3m. Compare those figures with the first quarter, when 6.4m tablets and 8.4m netbooks moved. Netbook sales are plummeting while tablet sales roar forward."

Perhaps the other question is "who's still buying netbooks?"

"“While we had indicated Q3 (September) PC-Notebook builds were looking up 10% to 15%, we believe the current outlook is more muted, looking for 8% to 10% for Q3.”<br />
"Desktops will continue to increase, the problem, once again, is the same culprit that’s been cited frequently this year, the Netbook, writes Rakesh: “The segment facing some challenges has been Netbooks, which we believe declined substantially 20% to 30% quarter over quarter into Q2 with tablets picking up.” Some original design manufacturers (ODM) “saw Netbook units down 50%” this quarter, he writes.<br />
"Notebooks, meanwhile, in the current quarter are flat with last quarter, versus a prior view to be up 5%, in unit terms".

The former chief operating officer of Canonical (Ubuntu) argues that netbooks are sooo over. The commenters disagree: some of them know someone who bought a netbook, ooh, a while back, and their tablet doesn't have a proper file system browser, so QED.

Thoughtful, despite his "semi-serious" warning.

The view from the labs. It may not be the hardest question you have to answer all day.