Notebooks Pass Desktops in Sales

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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eWeek reports that notebook sales have surpassed desktop sales for the first time in history in Q3. Acer is a big surprise in this segment, as they have grown their market share by an astounding 79% during the year and only trail former-juggernaut Dell by less than 2%.

“Momentum has been building in the notebook market for some time, so it’s not a complete surprise that shipments have surpassed those of desktops,” said iSuppli principal analyst for compute platforms Matthew Wilkins. “However, this marks a major event in the PC market because it marks the start of the age of the notebook.”
 
I thought notebooks have been outselling desktops for a while now. Weird.
 
notebooks overtake desktops - about 20 years

netbooks overtake notebooks - 3 years?
 
notebooks overtake desktops - about 20 years

netbooks overtake notebooks - 300 years?

Fixed. Wont happen, they are a niche item for folks that want insane battery life and portability. I think once the "newness" wears off their popularity will dwindle.

No matter how much more powerful netbooks get even the crappiest budget notebooks will have more power and theres alot to be said for a nice high res screen too.
 
I thought notebooks have been outselling desktops for a while now. Weird.
Yeah, in the US.

This is the first time notebooks have surpassed desktops world-wide.
 
There is a lot to be said about ultra portability too. You know the whole point of a "notebook." I think they were including "netbooks" in these numbers.
 
Fixed. Wont happen, they are a niche item for folks that want insane battery life and portability. I think once the "newness" wears off their popularity will dwindle.

No matter how much more powerful netbooks get even the crappiest budget notebooks will have more power and theres alot to be said for a nice high res screen too.

That and I believe that there is a functional semi-overlap between netbooks and high end smartphones like the Blackberry Bold and iPhone. You wouldn't want to edit a document on such a device, but otherwise you can do plenty on both like email, web browsing, watch video, etc, most of the things you would want to do on a netbook.

I'm obviously not in the right market for a netbook since I'm happy with owning both a powerful laptop and a smartphone; I just don't need one. I guess they are for people who don't need the power of a proper notebook computer and at the same time don't want or need a smartphone. I'd rather not lug around even a small netbook with me everywhere I go if I can do most of what I want with a little handheld device that goes in my pocket, but that's just me. Obviously the sales numbers of netbooks say that someone's buying. :)

The wild card to consider is that the new Atom media that's coming online is very impressive. I don't have a link handy but upcoming ones can play games like COD4 at 30fps and do 1080p video playback without skipping or dropping frames. They're only going to get more powerful.
 
People used to say the cell phone would kill the pc.

After a while, no one would use pcs, they'd use a cell phone.

Why didn't it? A cell phone couldn't do the things a normal pc could.

However, with netbooks, things might be different.

This will be interesting to see. Basically, it's worth it if it does the job for ya.

Small and portable is great, but netbooks may feed into smartphone sales. At least, from a business standpoint.
 
Fixed. Wont happen, they are a niche item for folks that want insane battery life and portability. I think once the "newness" wears off their popularity will dwindle.

No matter how much more powerful netbooks get even the crappiest budget notebooks will have more power and theres alot to be said for a nice high res screen too.

thing is, most of what the average person i know does on a computer can be done on a netbook.

plus it fits in her purse
 
I swear by my dell mini 9, Its so much easier to just grab the thing and bring it to class with me and be able to take notes, go on the web and develop, assemble, and test code on a laptop that fits in my cargo pants (if i wanted to :p)

I don't need the power of a desktop / high end notebook with me all the time on campus, i just need to be able to write code and notes.

Sorry, but for those that use them, netbook haters don't have a leg to stand on.
 
notebooks bigger then 14" lose their portability appeal and those things smaller then 10" suck too. i like how apple does their macbooks in 13"... its really a great size.
 
The 13 inch macs would be nice if they didn't have a damn 1 inch border around the screen
 
come on [H], am I missing some tongue in cheek of you guys posting this story?

July of 2003: Laptops outsell Desktops (I remember this because I was an employee of best buy selling computers at the time)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/03/technology/03TBRF1.html?ex=1230699600&en=f692a7bfd2b101ff&ei=5070

Then in 2005 some research firm called Current Analysis decided to post that laptops outsold desktops 54% to 46% for the first time ever or something like that. I even think that engadget had a post making fun of tech journalism for forgetting that this had been reported over and over!
 
come on [H], am I missing some tongue in cheek of you guys posting this story?

July of 2003: Laptops outsell Desktops (I remember this because I was an employee of best buy selling computers at the time)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/03/technology/03TBRF1.html?ex=1230699600&en=f692a7bfd2b101ff&ei=5070

Then in 2005 some research firm called Current Analysis decided to post that laptops outsold desktops 54% to 46% for the first time ever or something like that. I even think that engadget had a post making fun of tech journalism for forgetting that this had been reported over and over!


found the story! has the NY Times link in there too

http://www.engadget.com/2005/06/04/laptops-outsell-desktops-for-the-first-time-again/
 
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