Telecompaper

The total notebook PC market posted strong quarter-over-quarter and year-on-year growth in the second quarter as units surged past the 38 million mark, according to a study by DisplaySearch. The mini-note PC (netbook) market was particularly strong, growing 40 percent quarter-over-quarter, which was twice the 22 percent growth rate of larger notebook PCs. The strong growth of mini-note PCs drove their share of the portable computer markets to 22.2 percent in Q2. Asus, the pioneer in mini-note PCs, has been steadily losing share because tier 1 brands like Acer, HP, Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba have become increasingly aggressive in this segment. Mini-note penetration in Latin America and Greater China is higher than notebook PC penetration. The low prices of mini-note PCs make these products more affordable for these emerging markets, and these regions have many first-time PC buyers, who are less likely to require all the bells available on a larger mainstream notebook PC. In many regions, telecommunication providers have been offering subsidised mini-notes for several quarters, which helped propel growth. In Western European countries, a number of telecommunications are subsidising 100 percent of the price of the mini-note when the customer signs a two-year data plan contract. In North America, telecommunication providers are marketing mini-notes with a two-year data plan contract, while some cable providers are offering discounted mini-notes as an incentive to sign a contract for cable TV, internet and phone service. The incentives have been quite successful in Europe. In North America, these promotions were only test marketed in Q2, so there is insufficient data to determine if they will achieve the same measure of success. John F Jacobs, director of notebook market research said that Microsoft plans to increase the ASP of mini-notes, and a significant increase to the ASP of mini-notes may deter consumers that are predominantly using mini-notes as secondary PCs.