Although Samsung may be leaving the netbook market to seek its fortunes elsewhere, Acer has absolutely no intention of ditching the still lucrative space.
According to Acer VP Scott Lin, several emerging markets – such as China, India and Indonesia – maintain a strong demand for netbooks.
As Nicole Scott of Netbook News points out, Acer’s decision to stay in the netbook game makes perfect sense, as the Aspire One 722 is currently one of the top selling netbooks on the market.
Acer is also the largest netbook player worldwide, with sales surpassing 1.7 million units in the third quarter – accounting for approximately 22% of the market.
However, it should be noted that media tablet shipments have already surpassed netbooks, hitting 13.6 million units – compared to just 7.3 million netbooks. Netbooks had previously led the way with 8.4 million shipments in 1Q11, compared to 6.4 million media tablets. As expected, Apple’s iPad comprised approximately 68% of the tablet total.
“This is a trend that we do not expect will reverse,” ABI Research analyst Jeff Orr explained. “As they are different segments, this is not a direct replacement behavior, but a changing of leadership for the most interesting device type.”
According to Orr, consumers are choosing tablets over netbooks for a number of reasons.
“Media tablets are perceived to be easy to use, compared to the keyboard and mouse interface of a netbook computer,” he said.
“Those who have avoided PCs because they are difficult to use – think the Baby Boomer generation and older – see media tablets as an opportunity to re-engage with Internet access.”
