Netbooks: The first signs of a slow down?

Gartner has published their latest global laptop computer results. This saw a 43% increase in sales over a year earlier, pushed by good netbook sales.

Gartner has published their results of a global laptop computer study conducted during the first quarter of 2010. There was a 43% increase in sales when compared to the same period in 2009, with this being the strongest one year growth seen over the last eight years that the group has conducted this study. Behind these numbers were good netbook sales, with a 71% increase in shipped devices.

Over this period, the sector was mainly dominated by Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Dell, Toshiba and Asus. While Hewlett-Packard kept their number one world ranking with 19.2% market share, they were closely tailed by Acer who took comfort from their strong presence in the netbooks sector, seeing deliveries increase by 48%, for a total market share of 18.5%. As for Dell and Toshiba, they have been caught up by Asus, also very present in netbooks, with their sales doubling to capture 8.8% market share.

The first signs netbook sales may be slowing
It is apparent that netbooks are of interest to the general public thanks to their very attractive prices, a fact some manufacturers have understood as they have taken advantage of this to capture larger parts of the market.

But all good things must come to an end, with Gartner looking into their crystal ball to predict that the end of the netbook phenomenon is nigh, with sales starting to drop in some regions due to consumers realising the limits of these machines. The fact that standard laptop computers cost barely much more for an entry level model, users are starting to make the swap thanks to a larger screen and greater available options.