Market revenue for notebooks have increased by 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010 to US $31.32 Billion, the largest single quarter rise since Q3 2008, when notebooks were priced more than 20 percent higher than at present, according to new research by DisplaySearch. This is despite a 2.3 percent drop in unit volume.
Although average selling prices (ASPs) declined for desktop replacement notebooks, they recorded increases for every other category with double digit jumps for mini-note PC/slates and ultraportable categories.
ASPs in the mini-note PC/slate category were not impacted by Apple’s iPad since the product was not available in the first quarter. However the introduction of new feature-rich and second-generation CPUs pushed up set prices and increased revenue.
Average selling prices (ASPs) increased more than 6 percent quarter on quarter for the mini-note PC/slate and ultraportable categories, helped by a new crop of ultraportable products launched in and around the January CES show. However, sales in this category were still well below 2009 levels.
The positive year on year revenue growth in Q1 was a result of very strong mini-note PC/slate growth in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific, as well as continued growth in China and North America. Shipments of portable class notebook PCs surged year on year in Asia-Pacific, China, and Latin America, easily passing average market growth rates for the segment. Shipments of desktop replacement class notebook PCs for the same period surged in Europe/Middle East/Africa and Japan.
Shipment growth in the mini-note PC/slate category exceeded the average for the notebook market as a whole, but it appears that the momentum is shifting from mini-note PCs to slates. In Q4’09, there were no consumer-oriented slates in the market, and the devices that did exist were targeted at small, vertical markets. In Q1’10, Apple shipped almost 700K iPads into the channel, accounting for 6.5 percent of all mini-note PCs/slates. In the first two months of Q2’10, the company sold more than two million iPads.
Meanwhile, although low priced clamshell-style mini-note PCs have lowered the entry barrier for first-time PC buyers in emerging markets, the emergence of the iPad and other slates, is altering the market landscape. The market is transitioning from smaller and less expensive devices that followed typical PC market trends built upon Office suite applications and content creation to devices that provide the ability to create content and are more focussed on a la carte methods of selecting apps for device and content consumption.
“The last quarter of 2007 heralded the birth of the mini-note PC (netbook). Q1’10 signaled the birth of the slate PC, and possibly by extension, the beginning of the end of the mini-note PC (netbook),” says John F. Jacobs, Director of Notebook Market Research at DisplaySearch. “Apple has ported their successful iPhone app business model to the iPad. Android-based phones followed in their footsteps and will surely do the same with slates. The result will be that buyers of slates will be able to take advantage of this a la carte software model, adding only the functionality they want on their devices,” he said.
