| Last year a bunch of research firms put out studies showing that netbook shipments in 2008 were up over 2007 shipments by astronomical figures. That’s hardly surprising since the Eee PC 701 was pretty much the only netbook on the market in 2007, and it didn’t hit the streets until November of that year. But while 2008 was a big year for mini-laptops, it looks like 2009 was an even bigger year. Strategy Analytics says that netbook shipments grew by 79% in 2009.
That comes to 30.2 million netbooks shiped globally in 2009. The researchers says Acer, Asus, HP, and Dell led the pack, although as we also know Toshiba, Samsung, MSI, and others have put out fairly well received netbooks. Strategy Analytics predicts 2010 will be another strong year for netbooks. But the traditional concept of a mini-laptop with a low power processor, 10 inch or smaller screen, and nearly full sized keyboard may be under attack. We’re going to see a number of companies launch tablet-style devices that could eat away at the netbook market this year. And a growing number of PC makers are putting out 11 and 12 inch notebooks with more powerful graphics and processing capabilities than netbooks, but which generally offer decent battery life at an affordable price. I’m sure Strategy Analytics probably has some information I’m not privy to which leads to their conclusion that netbooks will be able to fend off those challenges. But I don’t feel like spending $7,000 on their full report to find out. |
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Netbook shipments jumped 79% in 2009
Submitted by shc-boomer on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 09:49