The PC industry as a whole is experiencing rather difficult times due to the financial crisis that has affected almost the entire market. Fortunately, one segment seems to flourish, emerging through the economic turmoil, the mini-note PC category, also called netbooks. The area managed to grow at an impressive rate of 160 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q3 2008.

The netbook segment is experiencing growth due to the fact that many top tier computer vendors have entered the market during the recent quarters, which gave it a great boost. As many of you already know, the PC maker that created the market segment in late 2007 is Asustek Computer, yet the company has dramatically lost market share to Acer, which is now stated to account for more than 35 percent of this segment.

In 2007, the market was under one million units. According to DisplaySearch, the segment is expected to rise to more than 14 million units by the end of this year.

“With the lone exception of Apple, all of the top 10 PC brands have entered the mini-note PC market, initially as a response to the competitive threat posed by Asustek, but also to satisfy demand from customers for low-priced, thin and very light products that provide at least a modicum of typical office software functionality and also enable greater mobility,” John F. Jacobs, director of Notebook Market Research, stated.

“The demand for greater mobility is especially evident in certain geographies as a number of mini-note PC brands are partnering with telecom providers to subsidize mini-note PCs, much like they do mobile phones. Worldwide demand for these products is forecast to grow rapidly over the next few years with demand from a variety of sources, including early adopters, consumer and enterprise PC customers seeking a smaller or secondary notebook PC, as well as new PC customers in emerging markets. We expect the mini-note PC market to settle at approximately 16% share of the notebook PC market by 2011,” Jacobs added.