Netbooks Help First-Tier Vendors Gain Market Share

Netbooks have seen a great adoption lately, and their shipments have been of great help to the entire mobile PC market. Even so, netbook shipments are seen as having a great impact on the sales of notebooks, and there are some voices that see this as an issue for some first-tier vendors. Interestingly enough, top players in the netbook market, as Acer and Asustek Computer, do not share the same problems, although netbooks are affecting notebook shipments.

It seems that the two have been registering positive results from the netbook market, and that their gains are greater than the losses on the notebook segment. Acer saw an on-year mobile PC shipment growth of 53 percent in 2008 courtesy of the netbook sales. At the same time, Asustek registered a 135 percent growth due to netbook shipments. HP, another leading player in the notebook market, experienced shrinkage of notebook shipment growth from 58 percent in 2007 to 29 percent this year.

According to Joanne Chien, Digitimes Research analyst, this is a clear indicator of the great impact netbooks have on the market, and that vendors who do not have netbooks on display will see a lower shipment performance. According to the analyst, the netbook market is expected to reach 14.86 million units in 2008, which translates into a total shipment growth of mobile PCs of up to 37 percent on-year. Notebook shipments grew only by 23 percent on-year. On the other hand, Acer and Asustek accounted for 65 percent of the netbook market, says Digitimes Research.

The previsions for the netbook market in 2009 show that the competition will become fiercer, and that the two vendors will see a greater challenge than this year. Moreover, Chien said that the small size of netbooks might become a problem at a certain point, although their mobility and consumer orientation help their adoption. The idea is that small size displays are not suitable for longer periods of work, and users will tend to connect the machines to larger size displays.

The analyst also said the second-tier vendors would be able to survive among little differentiation in features and specifications of netbooks only by strengthening sales and channel operations, while first-tier vendors would have a chance to enhance their economies of scale.