Microsoft acknowledges iPad's effect on netbook market

And here I thought I'd be the first to nitpick about the word "cannibalize." :)

That said, I agree it's an interesting admission from Microsoft.

It's not really cannibalizing anything... they're simply competing. It would be cannibalizing if (and when) HP releases a tablet and HP netbook sales decline.

Instead of analyzing the story guys who comment in tuaw proud themselves to the meaning of a single word and lost track of the world around them. Maybe they are all tuaw writers. But I wouldn't care less if the word is canabalise or fxxx

I think they should discuss the netbook market instead of arguing over a silly word

No, 'cannibalize' is the appropriate term when referring to secondary devices.

I see more and more people objecting to the incorrect use of the word "cannibalize" and I applaud their efforts. If you misuse a word, then the original meaning becomes meaningless.

Sharks don't "cannibalize" swimmers; people don't cannibalize cows, cats don't cannibalize mice; and iPads don't cannibalize netbooks.

2nding the previous poster, only Apple can cannibalize Apple. If it's a competing company's product that is being **displaced** it's not cannibalization.

Please don't perpetuate the misuse of "cannibalize".

It's not getting cannibalized.

For something to be a cannibal, it has to prey on its own kind or species.

As Jobs said in his keynotes, the iPad is NOT a netbook. It's above a smartphone and below a computer. But that it is NOT a netbook, and should not be classified as one.

Thus, since it is not a netbook, it is interfering and detracting from the netbook products, but it is not cannibalizing netbook sales.