DigiTimes has an article up about how Asustek is using netbooks to take on the top notebook suppliers in Japan next year.
Their Asus Eee PC line (including the 7″ Eee PC 700 series as well as the 8.9″ 900 series) now accounts for around 85% of their sales in Japan (although Asustek wants to increase their regular-sized notebook sales which would drop that number).
Through August, Asustek has sold 188,000 Eee PC netbooks in Japan through August.
The 1st place Eee PC901-X and 2nd place Eee PC 4G-X accounted for around 70% of the under 100,000 Yen (US$946.52), while the 3rd place 8.9″ Acer Aspire One accounted for 9% of sales, with the 4th place 10″ MSI Wind U100 account for 8% of sales. HP’s 8.9″Mini-Note 2133 came in sixth.
DigiTimes also mentions that netbooks could be impacting sales of 10″ – 12″ laptops:
The 10.4- to 12.1-inch segment also saw its market share shrink to just 4% likely due to the high number of netbooks introduced by leading PC brands during the quarter, DisplaySearch noted.
Meanwhile, in the overall market, Hewlett Packard (HP), as of the end of the second quarter of 2008, has now had two full years as the top notebook supplier in the world, with Dell in second place, with the major difference being consumer sales.