The portable
PC market enjoyed a 10 per cent increase in revenue in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the first three months of the year. The $26.4 billion figure was, however, down by 5 per cent on the same period of 2008, according to new figures from market researchers DisplaySearch.
The decrease is being attributed to the rising popularity of
netbook PCs . A cheaper and smaller
notebook equivalent,
netbooks have experienced a 264 per cent growth in revenue in the past twelve months, acquiring an 11.7 per cent of the mobile PC market in the process. With more consumers buying netbooks than
laptops, there has been a drop in revenue with netbooks typically priced under £300.
With
Windows 7 set to launch across a wide range of laptops at the end of the month,
Hewlett Packard and
Toshiba have already pledged to cut the price of their laptops with consumers showing a preference for affordability over performance.
Computer manufacturers in the USA are finding that laptops priced above $800 are very difficult to sell. The average price for a
laptop sold in the second quarter was $688, down by 19 per cent on the previous year.