Best Buy CEO Tries Backtracking From His iPad Eating Laptop Sales Statement (AAPL, BBY)

Best Buy CEO Goog TV

Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn is trying to walk back a statement he made about the success of the iPad.

Earlier this week, he told the Wall Street Journal iPad sales were cannibalizing laptop sales by as much as 50%.

A pretty shocking claim to hear coming out of the CEO of one of the largest electronic retailers. The quote was highlighted here, and elsewhere across the web.

Today, Dunn is trying to distance himself from his earlier statement, but he's not denying what he said. He's not adding any stats to disprove the previous statement, either. Here's the official statement from Dunn:

"The reports of the demise of these devices are grossly exaggerated. While they were fueled in part by a comment in the Wall Street Journal that was attributed to me, they are not an accurate depiction of what we're currently seeing. In fact, we see some shifts in consumption patterns, with tablet sales being an incremental opportunity. And as we said during our recent earnings call, we believe computers will remain a very popular gift this holiday because of the very distinct and desirable benefits they offer consumers. That's why we intend to carry a broad selection of computing products and accessories to address the demand we anticipate this season."

One thing that's interesting to note: It appears the Wall Street Journal changed the sentence slightly in its story.

Originally, the Journal said, "internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50 percent.”

Now the Journal says, "internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs, especially netbooks, by as much as 50%."

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also: