Analyst Expects Intel Netbook Growth to Slow

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Industry analyst seem to think that netbook growth will slow as standard notebooks get smaller, less expensive. It seems like a no-brainer, I can’t think of anyone that would choose a netbook over a more powerful notebook of roughly the same size and price. Can you?

"The big surprise over the past couple years has been the emergence of Netbooks. However we believe regular notebooks will likely outpace the growth in Netbooks in 2010," according to a research note from Avian published Monday. "For 2010 we expect regular notebooks to grow to 180+MM (million) from 140MM in 2009, with Netbooks growing to 47MM from 37MM," Avian said.
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I'm still waiting for reasonable mobile graphics acceleration. Ion is a pretty good selling point for netbooks.
 
Everyone at our corp seems to be asking if they can get one of those netbook "thingies". We do have a couple in the wild, and i personally own one and love it, but from a corporate standpoint i dont see us planning on replacing anyones laptops with a netbook. Perhaps supplement some of the execs with one though.
 
As a self appointed "industry analyst" :D , I predict the hype are this devices should subside too. It's just people buy them on hype expecting so much, and at the hospital I used to work at, they only resulted in disapointment and frustrated docs who can't type a on a keyboard made for a midget
 
You can pry my 12" HP Elitebook 2530p from my cold dead fingers.
 
Wow... analysts that were surprised by the emergence of the netbook predicting on future netbook sales. That's a track record to trust. ;)

A big "duh" goes to the analyst. If you lock the netbook definition to a specific set of hardware specs like atom processors, crappy video cards the market will definitely slow, rather than a specific form factor and price range ( <11" screen, no optical drive, <4 lbs, < $400 US ) then I think the market will keep on growing since more powerful computers will continually be moving into that definition as technology advances and it seems to be sweet spot in terms of what people want in "second" computer.
 
4saken said:
Everyone at our corp seems to be asking if they can get one of those netbook "thingies". We do have a couple in the wild, and i personally own one and love it, but from a corporate standpoint i dont see us planning on replacing anyones laptops with a netbook. Perhaps supplement some of the execs with one though.
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Netbooks aren't aimed at the corporate market. They're made to be cheap and disposable, reliability is low on the list of priorities. In a corporate environment, a days worth of downtime can cost THOUSANDS of dollars, $300 computers aren't worth the potential downtime. If they bump up the quality/robustness to corporate standards it bumps the netbook out of the low price range and adds weight, thus making it less attractive compared to a corporate laptop. We have 0 netbooks at work and have no plans to ever get any for corporate use... maybe a few for 'sandboxing', though. The high paid executive would get a $4000 thin and light Vaio Z series, not a $400 Acer Aspire, and average worker bee needs a larger screen and greater horsepower and robustness.

Anyways, there is little growth in the corporate market, I would say almost all the netbooks were sold to consumers as a "companion" computer, not as the primary. It makes a perfect companion for a home desktop... use the home computer for most computer tasks, use the netbook for sofa surfing or when you visit your in-laws.
 
Depends on the definition of "netbook" vs "Notebook"

The current "netbook" definition (Atom CPU, 10" screen, 1GB ram, 160GB drive) is too low.

Increase the definition to include anything with no CD/DVD drive and a screen size of 13.3" or less, and you'll still see alot of growth in the market.

I bought an Acer Timeline, with a dual core 1.2Ghz, 11.6" screen, 2GB ram, HDMI out, and Windows 7 home premium. Great laptop for less than $400, and will play full 1080p video. Hugh improvement over the Atom based netbooks, yet still only 3 pounds & 4-6 hour battery life.
 
"The fact that PC makers need to make more money is one of the factors driving this trend. Netbooks are inexpensive--typically about $350--and not as profitable as more standard laptops. "PC (makers) have not given up on trying to find ways to recapture some of the margin lost when Netbooks became very popular over the past couple years."

So if the Industry would lower the price of Laptops and make their profit by volume, their could be a win-win for both the consumer and Industry.
 
what is less reliable about a netbook? My $250 one hs a WD drive, intel guts, and an LED backlight. If anything it seems like it would be more reliable with less heat cooking it and less parts to fail.
 
Jakalwarrior said:
what is less reliable about a netbook? My $250 one hs a WD drive, intel guts, and an LED backlight. If anything it seems like it would be more reliable with less heat cooking it and less parts to fail.
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I don't think they were talking about lifetime reliability and dependability, but rather that you can't count on it (or rely on it) to perform heavy-duty chores such as business apps that uses standalone SQL database, or uncompressed CAD drawings and TIFF, such as in the company I work for. I'd imagine it's different for every company.

I wouldn't wish a netbook on anyone in our company. I'd had disgruntled employees bothering me all the time (since I'm the IT guy).
 
I disagree.

The new Intel Atom 450 while not really more powerful than previous models can offer four hours on a 3 cell compared to the the Atom 270s three hours, drop in a 6 cell and you have 8 hours. A typical low end regular dual core laptop will give you 2-3 hours with a 6 cell.

People don't do much with computers. They like them small, cute and cheap, so a netbook is more than enough for most people. Basically anyone that doesn't read this site. Personally I prefer a larger 11.6" with a Ultra Low Voltage Core 2 Duo and 4GB of RAM. But that doubles the cost and cost matters to most people.
 
Are analysts ever right? Or can I bank on the fact that they're wrong every time and expect netbook sales to up even higher this year??
 
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