We already knew netbooks were popular, but according to new data by research firm IDC, they are even more popular in Europe than we anticipated. The firm says that in 2008, netbooks sales accounted for 30% of total consumer portable sales in Europe, the Middle-East, and Africa. A big contributing factor are the telecommunication providers in Europe who subsidise netbooks.
The 30% figure does need a bit of sidenote, since netbooks make up 30% of consumer portable sales. Add in the business market, and this figure drops to 20%, indicating that businesses still very much prefer normal notebooks. In figures, this means 3.6 million netbooks were sold in the EMEA region during the final quarter of 2008. 7 Million netbooks were sold in 2008 overall, with sales climbing rapidly during the second half of the year.
IDC explains:
As expected, mini-notebooks were one of the most sought-after items in the Christmas season, particularly in Western Europe, which represented over 80% of volumes. Driven by strong vendor and channel push, consumers benefited from the plethora of new models appearing on the shelves from October onwards, and the explosion in the product offering stimulated fierce competition for shelf space. Following in the footsteps of Asus, there are currently more than 50 vendors, from international players to local assemblers, with a mini-notebook offering across EMEA, which is clearly contributing to the ongoing buoyancy.
Being a Western European myself, this is hardly surprising. Every electronics or computer store has multiple models on their shelves, and the ad magazines dropping in the mail a few times a week are all exploding with netbooks models. Asus and Acer are definitely the most popular, but slightly posher models from Samsung and HP can also be found everywhere.
Cell carriers have also discovered the potential of netbooks, and through them it’s relatively easy and cheap to get a netbook. I’ve felt tempted myself often enough; I’m in the market for a limitless 3G data contract, and I’m trying to find reasons why I should not pick a contract with a “free” netbook.
With the economic downturn only getting worse, netbooks seem like the right product at the right time. Sales will only increase, with IDC expecting double-digit growth in 2009.
Im not surprised at the increase. People who are ‘cutting back’ still need a computer of some sort in a lot of cases and these £200-300 laptops do everything they need
The perfect recession product
I actually think that this has little to do with that, but a lot of people just love the idea of a truly portable computer. Even my wife wanted one and she didn’t even look at the price
people may have wanted a portable laptop but didnt buy one once they looked at the price.
Sony, for example, have been making £2k ultra portables for years.
I’m sure if your wife wanted a £2k viao as opposed to a £200 netbook you wouldnt have entertained the idea for as long :-p
My guess is that most people buying netbooks also consider a regular notebook but choose the netbook because the extra portability is incredibly attractive; the pricepoint simply adds to the appeal. If I’m right, that’s incredibly bad news for Apple – their laptops presently look rather unattractive if you want something very small and light.
I buy only desktops and netbooks, no more notebooks. Netbooks come with linux
It is so incredibly cheap for a subnotebook that runs for 6 hours. 9 inch FTW, I want it portable and I don’t want to write big novels on it. No glossy meh either
With SSD, BT, Draft-N, SD-Card reader and HT it has all I could ever wish for and it only cost me 255€ total.
Superb value for my money.
I don’t know about the teleoperators where you live, but in Denmark, the “subsidized” price of netbooks all come with a higher-than-usual monthly subscription rate for the first half or full year, amounting to about the same as what you save in immediate pay-out.
So I don’t really see this as subsidy, but rather payment in installments.
I wonder what the initiative from Microsoft will be. They have set the pricing of Windows 7 to be much the same as for Vista, although I believe you will be able to buy a crippled version of Windows 7 for less money that only runs three programs at once. What if I want to run the three applications email, irc and instant messaging as well as something else like a web browser? How does that square up with ‘more affordable packaging’?
To me Microsoft are appearing to be irrelevant in one of the fastest expanding sectors of the computer market, which is big news.
The price you and I will have to pay for Windows 7 has little in common with the price a netbook manufacturer will have to pay. Microsoft will have no problem offering Windows at whatever price they have to if they decide they want this market.
If Microsoft persue this market and effectively “dump” Windows 7 on it (in the same way they now do with Windows XP Home), then microsoft don’t make any money on this market.
If Microsoft set the price of Windows 7 for this market at a level where they could make a profit on each machine sold with Windows 7, then the number of machines sold with Windows 7 is likely to be a far smaller portion of the market.
is a between computer…between a netbook and a notebook..small screen is fine, but decent resolution would be nice. optical drive doesnt matter.
One factor analyst neglect to mention is that netbook are getting new user’s in the market and on the internet from territory that usually had almost no user’s from there.
It’s not just replacement of old computers , or usual yougnsters of the wealthy country and clases that get netbooks , old people and poor people and a portion of the middle class who their budget did not permit them to come on at older price.
Netbooks being cute, highly portable, powerful enough for most casual users and not that expensive makes them a quite decent gift.
Unfortunately Apple has highly underestimated this market and keeps pushing iPhone/Tunes/Apps… where an Apple Netbook could have been a real boost in selling their hard and software in Europe.