Tablets popularity catches makers on the hop

Sales of tablet PCs are doing better than expected in the UK and US, according to manufacturers, and are expanding the appeal of laptop computers. Some are even having trouble keeping up with demand.

Top vendors Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba say sales of their tablet PCs are exceeding predictions made before the devices' November launch. The machines are based on Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition software.

Toshiba has been forced to increase production of its Portege 3500 tablet, after having trouble meeting initial demand, said Mark Simons, vice president of Toshiba's transactional business group.

Meanwhile, Ted Clark, a vice president for HP's personal systems, said: "Tablet sales have been exceeding expectations from the day we launched."

Tablet PCs are still a fairly small segment of the overall notebook market. But the devices have so far been a bright spot for manufacturers which are still feeling the effects of the PC market crash of 2001. The smaller machines have generated interest among the legal, real estate and healthcare industries, as well as from some consumers.

But while those predictions are generally considered a good thing, the stronger-than-expected demand has left manufacturers trying to keep up.

Toshiba has boosted production by 100 per cent, Simons said. However, its tablet PCs aren't always available from its sales partners. And while manufacturers prefer to have orders to fill versus having excess inventory on hand, at least some customers have grown unhappy waiting for their orders to arrive from Toshiba.

Toshiba said it is responding to the growing demand. "Each month we've improved each one of our (sales) channels from the previous month," Simons said. "Once we move into the March time frame we will see an improvement."