Notebook Laptop Sales Overtake Desktops For First Time !

The marketing intelligence firm IDC has recently reported that, for the first time ever, sales of notebooks have overtaken those of desktops in the United States.

The results focus on the July to September quarter of the year. Sales of notebooks were responsible for 55.2 percent overall of computer sales during this quarter, accounting for 9.5 million sales, which indicates a huge 18 percent increase on sales based on the same quarter last year.

This figure also marked the first time ever that notebooks have gone over the 50 percent mark in terms of overall sales, suggesting that people are increasing demanding on-the-go access to their computers for both completing work and going online.

One of the reasons that they saw such growth even amidst the financial crisis was the back-to-school season, which has been particularly active this year. It makes perfect sense for students to buy a notebook which they can take to lectures and to the library to study with – or at least that is what they tell their parents who usually have to buy the notebook for them.

IDC said that the financial crisis, despite capturing headlines across the globe, “did not immediately affect the PC market’s performance”, allowing these high sales to take place.

It was also not only down to the consumer market that the sales of notebooks rocketed. In fact, according to IDC research manager David Daoud, “the commercial sector played a critical role too”.

He also claimed, quite rightly, that despite the global financial downturn, PCs are now considered essential items for many people, rather than luxury items. As such, it is unlikely that they will see the same reductions in sales that other luxury items are likely to see.

It is an interesting point, and shows just how much we rely on our computers now. So even when the world faces the threat of a global recession, we are not only refusing to give up on buying new computers, but we are actually buying them in increasing numbers.

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