Netbooks Future Brightens Like Never Before

Once feared to fade away in the face of desktops and notebooks, the smaller computer terminals known as netbooks are still enjoying strong sales. Market analyst firm ABI Research (News - Alert) has forecast that nearly 60 million netbooks will be shipped worldwide this year, and their number may double in 2013.

Analysts say this is for the first time they are seeing robust market for netbooks after this small-sized computers arrived in the market two years ago. As the netbook market matures, researcher says, market shares are beginning to shift among vendors.

Half a dozen vendors commanded 78 percent of the market in 2009. Acer (News - Alert) and ASUS –– which pioneered the whole netbook concept with its Eee PC –– held almost two-third of the worldwide market share between them in 2008. But ASUS didn't maintain that lead and lost half of its market share in 2009, as more companies came on board and started making the devices.

"Instead of having a pre-eminent two," notes principal analyst Jeff Orr, "it looks as if only Acer will continue to maintain its commanding lead; but at the same time there are more vendors competing head-to-head. Most of the others major names -- HP, Dell, Lenovo -- increased their market shares in 2009, while Samsung (News - Alert) lost a couple of percentage points."

"Some firms saw netbooks as an entry point into the PC market. Gigabyte is one example. With 2009 market share falling to just 0.1 percent, Gigabyte might be advised to rethink that strategy. Other suppliers, such as the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) initiative, have been hit hard by the global recession," Orr said.

 What this study shows is that consumers are not at all shunning the netbooks, and the lure of tiny computers has remained the same: value rather than raw performance. Nor the netbooks are replacing laptops or PCs; they are instead being bought as complementary devices.

With education remaining to be the strong market driver, netbooks will continue to be sold at the same pace over the next several years, says the research firm.