Research firm DisplaySearch has said that shipments of Netbooks will double this year but sales of mainstream laptops will stay flat at round 129.5 million worldwide.
We are all well aware now that the low cost devices we fondly refer to as Netbooks are extremely popular but how many Netbooks are we talking about here in real terms?
According to John Jacobs, Director of Laptop Research at DisplaySearch, around 32.7 million Netbooks could be shipped this year compared to the 16.4 million Netbooks that were shipped last year.
This is an increase on the prediction the firm had earlier which was that 27.5 million Netbooks might ship this year.
Netbooks have changed dramatically since they first appeared in 2007 but what is it about them that is so appealing to consumers?
First point is the competitive price. Netbooks are quite simply affordable. Another point is that these days you can get Netbooks that look more like entry level laptops with larger screens and keyboards which make them easier to use.
In the early days Netbooks had tiny screens and cramped keyboards that nothing other than the most nimble of fingers could work their way around. This led to many Netbooks being returned. Manufacturers soon caught on and caught up with demand.
We’re also now seeing Netbooks with increasingly better specs too meaning that the boundary between an upper end Netbook and lower end Laptop is definitely becoming rather blurred in appearance but the price of course isn’t.
We can use the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 Netbook as an example. This little device has a comfortable 12 inch screen that is capable of playing high resolution movies and is the first laptop to ship with a Nvidia Ion option.
The Nvidia’s Ion platform combines Nvidia’s GeForce 9400 graphics processor with Intel’s Atom chip.
According to Jacobs, the lines between Netbooks and Laptops could blur even more in the future with continued improvements in Hardware, for example, when new ultra thin laptops make their appearance. These lie somewhere between a Netbook and a Laptop.
What other reasons are there for the continued popularity of Netbooks?
Netbooks are also proving popular as primary devices in developing countries and as secondary laptops in more developed countries according to Jacobs.
Yes, I think we can safely say that these nifty little devices are no passing fad and are very much expected to stick around for the foreseeable future.
If you want to find out all the latest news on tech why not subscribe to our RSS feed?
Leave a Reply