AUSTIN, TEXAS — Preliminary data from DisplaySearch reveals that shipments of almost 6 million mini-note PCs (netbooks) raised their penetration in the notebook PC market close to 20% worldwide in Q1’09. Acer was the leader in the mini-note category with a market share of 30.5%, shipping twice as many mini-notes as Asus, their nearest rival. HP continued their dominance of the notebook PC category, growing share to 24.1%, with more than 7.3 million shipped. Penetration rates for mini-notes were the highest in EMEA and Latin America, and the lowest in China, Japan and North America. Approximately 45% of all mini-notes shipped in the quarter went into EMEA, compared to less than 26% in North America. By contrast, EMEA accounted for 38% of the total notebook market, while North America was less than 30%. The differences in share between EMEA and North America may be a result of telecom subsidy plans in Europe. Telecom providers in Europe began experimenting with free or heavily discounted mini-notes with the purchase of two-year data plans in early 2008, but the first US-based telecom providers tried such subsidies in December 2008, and they have only very recently begun to expand these promotional programs. For the notebook PC industry as a whole, #2 Acer passed #3 Dell, capturing 18.8% of the market. However, of the top five notebook PC brands, Acer had the greatest percentage of their total shipments accounted for by mini-notes by far(31.6%), compared to HP, Dell, Toshiba and Lenovo, all of whom shipped less than 10% of their volume as mini-notes. In the forthcoming DisplaySearch Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report, the company analyzes the importance of mini-notes to brands’ total market share, and identifies key geographies that are critical to the long-term growth and health of the mini-note and notebook PC markets. Table 1: Notebook and Mini-Note Shipments and Growth (millions)
Source: DisplaySearch Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report *In this table, the notebook PC shipments exclude mini-note shipments. The total row for each brand includes both mini-notes and notebook PCs. “It is clear at the moment that mini-notes play a vital role in the total PC market. Without the additional volume provided by these products, shipment volumes for the notebook PC market would have been down 19% Y/Y, instead of only falling 3%. While there is no doubt that many buyers of mini-notes would have chosen larger notebook PCs if mini-notes were not available, it is also certain that many buyers might have chosen not to purchase a notebook PC at all,” said John F. Jacobs, Director of Notebook Market Research and author of the report. The DisplaySearch Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report is a comprehensive and exclusive compilation of market data from DisplaySearch’s industry sources, along with insightful analysis of the state of the notebook PC industry. For information on this DisplaySearch report, please contact your DisplaySearch sales representative for more details. If you need further information or assistance, please contact Charles Camaroto at 1.888.436.7673 or 1.516.625.2452 or contact@displaysearch.com, or contact your local DisplaySearch office in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Don’t forget to register for SID’s Business Conference, co-hosted by DisplaySearch and SID, during the SID Display Week. To view the full agenda for the SID Business Conference and presentation abstracts, visit https://www.sid.org/conf/sid2009/business.html or to register visit https://www.sid.org/conf/sid2009/registration.html |