This year will end with almost 60 million netbooks shipped worldwide. According to ABI Research, almost double that number will be reaching global markets in 2013!
Of course, not all netbook makers will win this race. In 2009, half a dozen vendors commanded 78% of the market. A year before, Acer and ASUS (which pioneered the whole netbook concept with its Eee PC) held almost equal one-third shares of the market in 2008, though ASUS didn’t maintain that lead and lost half of its marketshare in 2009. Other vendors that joined the party in the meantime include HP, Dell and Lenovo, all of which grabbed slices of the marketshare in 2009.
ABI’s analysts believe some of the smaller players will exit the market, pointing to Gigabyte as one example.
However, consumer interest in netbooks will stay strong, as they [consumers] look for value rather than raw performance. Netbooks are not replacing laptops or PCs, but are being bought as complementary devices. Education remains a strong market driver, and the next several years will see very respectable continuing growth… And you can get additional information from ABI Research’s website.