The strong growth of mini-note PCs drove their share of the portable computer market to 22.2 per cent in Q2 2009. Asus, the pioneer in mini-note PCs, has been steadily losing share because tier-one brands such as Acer, HP, Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba have become increasingly aggressive in this segment.
Mini-note penetration in Latin America and Greater China is higher than notebook PC penetration. The low prices of mini-note PCs make these products more affordable for these emerging markets, and these regions have many first-time PC buyers, who are less likely to require all the bells and whistles available on a larger mainstream notebook PC.
In many regions, telecom providers have been offering subsidised mini-notes for several quarters, which helped propel growth. In Western European countries, a number of telecom firms are subsidising 100 per cent of the price of the mini-note when the customer signs a two-year data plan contract.
In North America, telecom providers are aggressively marketing mini-notes with a two-year data plan contract, while some cable providers are offering heavily discounted mini-notes as an incentive to sign a contract for cable TV, internet and phone service. The incentives have been quite successful in Europe. In North America, these promotions were only test-marketed in Q2 2009, so there is insufficient data to determine if they will achieve the same measure of success.
Mini-notes have been a significant contributor to the growth in the portable PC market as their very attractive price points make owning a secondary computer viable for many consumers.
“Mini-note PC screen sizes have increased steadily, from seven inches to 8.9 inches and then to 10.2 inches. However, the higher prices of these larger netbooks diminish their cost advantage. In addition to many key players, Microsoft is planning to increase the asking price of mini-notes. A significant increase to the asking price of mini-notes may deter consumers who are predominantly using mini-notes as secondary PCs,” said John F Jacobs, Director of Notebook Market Research.