Netbook sales have increased significantly despite the slow down in sales of the PC due to the recession. According to figures, Q1 of calendar 2009 has seen posting of huge numbers by the Netbook.

Technology market research agency Gartner said that netbook sales increased by 100% in quarter on quarter sales and stood at 36,000 units compared to nearly 16,000 units up to December 2008. Further, the whole of December 2008 saw sales of approximately 30,000 units of the netbook. It is estimated that the total notebook market in India is around 2.5 million units per year. Of this, the entry level is estimated to be approximately 10% in size.

From price points beginning at Rs. 19,000, netbooks have become popular with consumers who are looking at a second or even a third PC, according to Diptarup Chakraborty, who is the principal analyst at Gartner - the leading information technology consultancy.

The dominant players in the market include Acer, Asus, HP, HCL and Dell. Other players like Samsung, which has introduced 4 new models in the market, are vying for a lucrative market share. Though Samsung is a late entrant in the market, it is expected to take a significant 7-8% share in the market by 2010. 

Acer led the category with sales of around 13,000 units, which was followed by HCL and HP, which sold 5500 units and 4,900 units in the quarter. Further, Asus sold 3,090 units in the three months.

According to Stantely Wu, who is the head for Notebook and Eee PC business, Asus India, 2-3 lakh netbooks are expected to be sold in 2009. He added that the sales of the company’s Eee PC range was expected to increase many fold as more customers would get aware of it.

According to S Ranjendran, chief marketing officer, Acer India, the credit for identifying the form factor and developing it should go to Asus while Acer should be commended for giving it bulk by being able to engineer the specs for lower price and the power to corner the market. The massive leap in the notebook market came when the Intel Atom chip was developed specifically for the small form factor devices and which was launched in India last year.

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Posted by Jigar Gondalia on 16 May, 2009 5:22:47 PM IST #