Growth will slow down by 2013-2014

Aug 9, 2010 11:06 GMT  ·  By

Last year, the netbook market practically boomed, showing an incredibly fast growth, and the segment has since continued rising as a fairly rapid pace. Still, the rate of growth appears to be slowing down, mostly because the market is starting to get saturated. Still, the amount of shipments is expected to rise for a while still, and Techaisle believes that this year, as a whole, will yield a 13% growth compared to 2009 in terms of sales.

Apparently, the research firm foresees that the total netbook sales for the ongoing year will amount to 36 million. This includes both those sold on the consumer front, as well as those on the business segment. The market will also keep growing, though at a steadily declining pace, by 2013 or 2014. Mostly, this kind of entry-level mobile PC is described as fitting for students on the move and for businesses looking for easy portability. Still, a few established markets will supposedly shift away from this product type.

"We firmly believe the netbook device is developing into an interesting but niche product segment" says Anurag Agrawal of Techaisle. “Only those vendors who will quickly understand the boundaries of such niche will truly be able to maximize on the ROI and capitalize on its opportunities."

"The answer for which netbook market is found if we look at netbook usage rather than the channels / method of purchasing and the vendors re-positioning, such as Vodafone", says Paolo Puppoli of Techaisle.

Apparently, netbooks are especially sought after in Europe, amongst retail shop and booth owners, and vendors will have to study which countries are most interested in such laptops if they are to see further growth.

“In 2010 there will be a short and transient shift of netbook purchases among consumers from some mature markets into a few newly emerging markets. At the same time European businesses will continue to adopt netbooks in decent numbers,” states the press release.