Acer Inc. displaced Asustek Computer Inc. (Asus) as the netbook market leader
December 9, 2008 (Computerworld) The market for netbooks — small notebook PCs with even tinier prices — exploded in the third quarter of this year, according to market researcher DisplaySearch LLC, as vendors aimed their wares at students during the back-to-school season.
The global market for netbooks, also known as mini-notebooks, was 5.61 million in the third quarter, up 160% from the second quarter, according to a statement today from DisplaySearch, an Austin-based research firm.
Acer Inc. displaced Asustek Computer Inc. (Asus) as the netbook market leader for the first time during the quarter, taking 38.3% of the market, compared to 30.3% for Asus.
DisplaySearch expects sales of netbooks, which are lighter-weight, lower-powered and generally cheaper than regular notebook PCs, to hit 14 million by the end of the year. That’s a sharp rise from 2007, when just 1 million were sold.
“Worldwide demand for these products is forecast to grow rapidly over the next few years, with demand from a variety of sources, including early adopters, consumer and enterprise PC customers seeking a smaller or secondary notebook PC, as well as new PC customers in emerging markets,” DisplaySearch analyst John F. Jacobs wrote in a report. “We expect the mini-note PC market to settle at approximately 16% share of the notebook PC market by 2011.”
Like Gartner Inc., DisplaySearch sees Netbooks as the one bright spot in the overall laptop PC market, which has shown signs of slipping.
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