The netbook market has been greatly influenced by the Intel Atom processor, which stimulated demand in the segment, yet the nettops powered by the same chip have not seen a similar success among users. Motherboard makers showed more interest in the all-in-one PC segment as an alternative way to boost desktop demand. The future of all-in-one products is seen as rather optimistic by many channel vendors, who expect these parts to register better growth than the nettop area.

In the beginning, Intel was quite optimistic about nettop products and believed that they were able to boost growth of entry-level desktop PC shipments, yet it seems that consumers were not impressed by the lack of performance offered by the devices, also complemented by rather unattractive prices. On the other hand, netbooks have seen a good penetration of the market as the nettop segment narrowed.

According to channel sources, industry players like Asustek Computer, Micro-Star International (MSI) and Synnex are reported to announce an annual nettop shipment forecast lowered by as much as 50 percent.

At the same time, MSI, Asustek and Acer are developing all-in-one PCs expected to feature prices lower than $600, which will also add pressure on the nettop segment. As many of you already know, all-in-one PCs are not new on the market; in fact, they have been available for several years now, but they sport new features like touch panels and improved industrial designs, while also featuring lower price points which could help the segment take off.

Asustek already has an all-in-one PC launched, the 15.6-inch Eee Top, which is priced $565 and announced plans to release 20- and 22-inch models in 2009. MSI is scheduled to launch its all-in-one product line Wind Neton in January next year with three models, all Atom based. The company will release 15.6-inch and 18.5-inch machines priced $399-$499. Acer has also been reported to launch all-in-one PCs in January, yet no further details are available.

Since nettops are not selling well, some PC vendors like Acer might abort plans to deliver such low cost machines and focus on the development of other products. The latest previsions show the nettop segment as accounting for a very small portion of the desktop market, while struggling to stay alive on the long term.