Netbooks are popular in developed countries because they are light and portable enough to be taken anywhere for quick and ready access to the Net and as they don’t cost the earth to buy they are mostly bought as a useful secondary device.
Now more and more Netbooks are being snapped up in Africa as a primary device because they are affordable, have minimal power demands, and can allow users to connect to the Internet which they might not otherwise be able to do.
“There is definitely a big opportunity for netbooks in Africa in the education, SOHO and SMB sectors, largely driven by the broadband boom in Eastern and Southern Africa as local content increases and netbooks become more and more affordable,” said Stanley Kamanguya, systems and infrastructure analyst at IDC East Africa.
African consumers can buy these convenient mini laptops for as little as a couple of hundred dollars whereas they would have to fork out more than three times that for a fully fledged laptop or a desktop PC, which is right out of reach of most ordinary people.
The increase in Netbook use will mean that a greater percentage of the population will be able to have access to the Net.
“Affordable access will drive penetration of computers and connectivity; only when computers and connectivity are truly affordable does ICT reach the majority of the population in any country,” said Tony Roberts, CEO and founder of Computer Aid International.
“The cost of commercially available new PCs and monthly Internet connectivity charges in Africa currently puts computers and connectivity beyond the reach of most ordinary people,” said Roberts.
That’s the thing with Netbooks; they are within the reach of ordinary folk. So who’s providing these Netbooks?
Computer Aid is offering the Dell Mini 10 netbook to educational and non profit institutions but Acer, Asus, Hewlett Packard, Intel and One Laptop per Child are other major players who are also involved in the supply of Netbooks to Africa.
“The increasing availability of laptops and netbooks will make computing more attractive and practical to users in Africa. Specifically, low-power PCs and long-lasting batteries will be beneficial in areas with limitations in mains electricity,” added Roberts.
Makes sense when you consider that netbooks don’t use a lot of power so in a country where the power supply is not that great, where power outages are more common and where the cost of power can be high, netbooks are realistically the best option, for the time being anyway.
If you were hoping that Netbooks were going to go away, forget it.
