It’s well-recognised that notebook sales are now outstripping desktop PCs, but within the notebook category, netbooks are also claiming an increasing chunk of the market.
According to Gartner’s just-released Q2 hardware sales figures for Australia, a total of 677,567 notebooks were shipped. Of those, 97,220 were netbooks (or mini-notebooks, to use Gartner’s own preferred terminology). That’s just shy of 15% of the market.
According to Gartner, 90% of those sales are into the consumer space. While that’s to be expected, it still means that there’s nearly 10,000 business users that have decided to use netbooks (though whether, like me, they’ve been rejected as main work machines and kept for use when out of the office is another question). The growing trend to sell netbooks in a bundle with 3G broadband will presumably see the numbers rise again in Q3.
The size of netbooks is both their strongest selling point and their biggest potential disadvantage. If you’ve made the netbook choice, explain your reasoning in the comments.
Grim
August 27, 2009 at 3:50 PM
They make good low power small servers for home use ;)
Report Permalinkthe Odd one
August 27, 2009 at 4:13 PM
Travelling to different sites for work it’s rather advantageous as I don’t need to sacrifice the size of my lunch because of the size of the mini-notebook/netbook/joyous contraption.
Also reasonably good for Age of Empires II… :D
Report PermalinkSian Kitten
August 27, 2009 at 7:58 PM
Lightweight, small, superportable. And the eeepc 1000HE has the most amazing battery life.
Report PermalinkGiles Farmer
August 27, 2009 at 9:36 PM
I’m travelling to England soon for an extended period, and I’ll be using my netbook to communicate with my family on a daily basis, using a 3g dongle or wifi hotspots. The need to travel light is essential
Report Permalinkseanb
August 28, 2009 at 11:42 AM
I will continue to build my own desktop PCs, and can’t see that changing, but I recently bought a 1000HE for the times when I need to travel for business, and absolutely love it.
Report PermalinkCompared to the 3+kg 15in monster that I used to lug around, is like carrying nothing, not to mention that it fits comfortably on a tray table in economy, and given how cheap they are, I won’t cry too much if it’s stolen or broken.
I would not want to use it as an all day machine, although in a pinch it would do the job (runs Visual Studio ok, but lack of screen real estate can be a little frustrating). For those who need to do the odd bit of travelling, I could not recommend them highly enough.
Sam
September 10, 2009 at 9:24 AM
I’ve got a 10005HA and it’s awesome! I have a powerful desktop PC and a decent laptop, but the netbook is my prefered choice in any situation that involves simply net browsing or emails because of it’s battery life and mobility. I’m gonna get another soon and install it in my car lol.
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