Netbook
laptops now account for more than one in ten
laptop and
desktop PC sales in
Australia . Despite only being commercially available for just over a year, the economic downturn has seen parents turn to the low cost
PCs in the search for a
computer for their children. This decision has been encouraged by the Rudd Government’s Education
Tax Refund scheme, which allows parents to claim up to $375 in education expenses for each primary school child and $750 for every secondary school child. With
netbooks ranging in cost from $300 to $800 typically, the scheme virtually covers the cost for a parent of buying their child a
netbook .
Intel, which produce the chips that power the netbooks, claim that the low-cost, low-powered netbooks now account for 21 per cent of the consumer laptop market, up from 10 per cent six months ago.
Marketing manager of Intel Australia, Kate Burleigh, said, ‘The volume of netbooks sold in Australia doubled between the third and fourth quarter of 2008 and sits well above ten per cent of total
desktops and
notebooks sold which, as far as Intel is concerned, moves the netbook very solidly into being a legitimate product category in its own right.’