Netbooks (or Mini-Note as they call it) are hot, (pun intended) and their market is growing. DisplaySearch, a market research company, has released a new report that takes a look at the netbook market (and the notebook market in general).
They claim that the netbook market grew more 160% in just the third quarter of 2008 (when many of the major notebook/laptop manufacturers began to make an impact). They consider netbooks to be “one very bright spot” in the PC industry as a whole.
Acer is at the top of the charts, with their one and only 8.9″ Intel-Atom powered Acer Aspire One, beating out Asustek and their Asus Eee PC family, picking up more than 35% of the market.
Top 10 Netbook Makers, according to DisplayResearch:
1) Acer (38%)
2) Asus (30%)
3) HP (5.8%)
4) MSI (5.7%)
5) Dell (2.8%)
6) OLPC/Intel (2.3%)
6) Medion (2.3%)
8) Kohjinsha (1%)
9) Lenovo (0.7%)
10) Toshiba (0.5%)
All Others (9.1%)
They mention Apple as the only major player not in the market – they are leaving out Sony and Fujitsu, but Sony has indicated they are entering the market and Fujitsu may fall into the “All Others” category.
The only major surprise to me is that Dell is higher than I expected, although they have been aggressive in marketing and sales, even including Dell Inspiron Mini 9s when you purchase other Dell systems, and MSI and Lenovo are lower than I expected. I would have expected MSI to be a little higher given that they’ve began selling in North American retail sectors, but we are talking about the third quarter and we are at the end of the fourth. That will be the quarter to watch.
I’m actually not surprised about Asustek. Acer had the perfect timing with the Aspire Ones, and with their storage capacity (using actual 2.5″ Serial ATA HDDs) and pricing. Asustek has been (and still is) in danger of overwhelming and confusing people with too many models and model names, and HP nearly fell into this trap with the 2133 series before coming back with a simplified gameplan with the Mini 1000 (the 2133 had quite a few more options compared to the Mini 1000).
Asustek should take note that Acer is at the top, and they’ve done it with a fairly simplified lineup and one model name.
Read: DisplaySearch
via: LAPTOP Magazine