More Laptops Headed to the Recycle Bin: Report

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) quickly burned through its initial supply of iPads last year when the company launched the popular tablet and set competitors scrambling to bring out their own devices and push the fast-growing category even further.

But tablets are proving not just to be a new category of computer device, but one that is eating away at the more established market for laptops and notebooks.

InternetNews.com. "We don't sell new equipment, but we can see what companies are replacing."

Bernstein said he's not surprised to see more companies replacing notebooks with iPads.

"The iPad is less than a year old, but if you look at the technology from a professional's standpoint, for presentations and mobility, it's lighter and there are so many things you can do with it," he said. "It reminds me of the change over we saw from CRTs to LCD displays when the benefits of better performance and less energy consumption drove that trend."

Bernstein mentioned several types of companies that he's seen dump notebooks in favor of tablets or find new applications for the devices. Among those are restaurants providing a new kind of digital menu on a tablet device and field workers for government agencies as well as utility company personnel out on telephone poles and meter readers.

"The business world is really now just starting to define new ways to use these tablets," he said. "It's easy to imagine a realtor being able to easily show clients different properties on a tablet because it provides such a good visual representation."

And while the iPad has largely had the field to itself, big name competitors are starting to roll out alternatives.

"You've got RIM's Playbook and Motorola's Xoomcoming, and companies like HP and Lenovo already out there," said Bernstein. "This is not a fad, you're only going to see more models. I expect to see rugged tablets emerge that are more durable and better suited to particular use cases where the user has a better chance of dropping the device or banging it, like law enforcement."

New technology, particularly for business, often comes in at a higher price than what it aims to replace, but tablets are priced about the same as notebooks and even if they don't have the same amount of storage and other features, the lighter weight and portability they offer comes at a time when an increasing number of workers are more mobile.

"CIOs are adding iPad to the approved list at an amazing rate with over 80 percent of the Fortune 100 either adopting or engaged in pilot projects," Apple COO Tim Cook said during his company's earnings call earlier this month.

"This is unheard of in the enterprise which is generally much slower to adopt new technology," Cook added. "I think we're just scratching the surface."

AnythingIT identified the following top 10 cities as leading the notebook-to-tablet replacement trend:

• Washington, DC
• New York, NY
• San Francisco, CA
• Atlanta, GA
• Dallas, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• Miami, FL
• Boston, MA
• Seattle, WA
• Baltimore, MD

David Needle is the West Coast bureau chief at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.