Laptop sales up by 43% in Q1, says Gartner (Netbook sales soar by 71%)

Computerworld ^ | May 25, 2010 | Mikael Ricknäs

[SmokingJoe]

IDG News Service - Shipments of laptops rose by 43.4% in the first three months of 2010, compared to the same period last year, according to Gartner Inc. The researcher cited a 71% increase in netbook sales, which it said shouldn't be affected by the arrival of Apple's iPad and other tablets.

The year-over-year growth was the highest the laptop market has seen in the last eight years, Gartner said, and buyers spent about $36 billion.

A total of 49.4 million PCs were shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2010. About 20% of those were netbooks, which made up about 13% of PC sales in the first quarter of 2009, according to Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner.

Gartner does not include sales of tablet devices like the iPad in its laptop sales figures, as they are not a replacement for traditional laptops and netbooks. Netbooks still have a number of differentiators compared to tablets, including price, according to Atwal. However, as the price of tablets drop that will change, he said. The top downloaded applications for tablets will say a lot about how these devices could displace some laptop sales in the future, Gartner said

[SmokingJoe]

So much for all the recent deafening FUD from the Applebots that the iPad was “killing” netbooks. Netbooks can do a heck of a lot more than the iPad, have more features, and sell for half the price. Plus Intel is just about to introduce a dual-core netbook chip next month. It's a no brainier.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20004439-64.html

[babble-on]

no nobody’s spending anything, I know that because in my General Store we’re selling hardly any horehound hard candy.

[reagan_fanatic]

I have several laptops and had a netbook up until recently.

I love them, but they tend to get a little too warm after extended use, and hard drive failure is more prevalent since the drive is smaller and subject to more heat than a normal desktop drive is.

[mom4melody]

My 7 and soon to be 9 year old will be receiving netbooks for Christmas this year.

[KarlInOhio]

How are desktop sales doing? Is this an increase in sales, or just laptops being used as desktop replacements?

[Abby4116]

We use my laptop much more than the desktop, but use it as a desktop replacement. It is on from about 5 am until 2am the next morning. This one is going on its fourth birthday and has never failed.

I bought one of those under laptop fan coolers at Staples and it solves the heat up problem.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

This cannot be! Netbooks aren’t magical like the iPad, they cannot exist with the power that is iPad!

[nascarnation]

I’d say most of this is due to Win 7. There has been a lot of pent up demand since nobody wanted Vista.

Then again, I’m still surfing on a 7 yr old Dell Inspiron with XP, LOL.

[SmokingJoe]

Desktops sales registered strong increases as well apparently, in the US anyways:

Desktop Sales Skyrocket, ASPs Rise
"Friday, March 19, 2010 - by Joel Hruska
The NPD Group released a statement today that points toward surprising growth in desktop sales this past February. Historically, desktop sales have trended steadily downwards for the past ten years; notebook shipments first surpassed desktop shipments in 2008. New data suggests the pendulum has oddly swung the other way—desktop unit sales were up 30 percent in February, while desktop-derived revenue grew by 33 percent."

Read more: http://hothardware.com/News/Desktop-Sales-Skyrocket-ASPs-Rise/#ixzz0p35xKUPX

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Do any of you good folks know the latest on those laptops India was going to sell for $10?

[Yet_Again]

...not to mention that half the netbooks out there run the full version of Mac OS X quite well. Apple really dropped the ball dismissing the netbook sector. The iPad is nowhere near as capable a machine. I was thinking of getting a replacement but if Intel is going to be releasing a dual core netbook chip soon I’ll just continue to soldier on with my atom-powered MSI wind for the time being.

[Cyman]

"So much for all the recent deafening FUD from the Applebots that the iPad was “killing”� netbooks." I read the same trumpeting on Gizmodo and Engadget. According to them the netbook was going the way of leisure suits and should be a dead and buried innovation.

[catnipman]

I’ve had my hands on a few, and netbooks are great! Containing the 1.6 GHZ Atom processor, by the time you’ve hooked one up to an external monitor so you can see the screen, a USB keyboard so you can type easily, a USB mouse so you can scroll easily and a USB CD/DVD so you can play CDs and DVDs, why, you’ve got a “portable” computer that will match up with anything ever made eight years ago!

[PJ-Comix]

Good opportunity here to BRAG about getting my Compaq Presario laptop FREE back in March...via coupons. Or indirectly via coupons.

[SmokingJoe]

India's $10 laptop is not a laptop
You know what was missing from the so-call “unveiling” of India's $10 laptop yesterday? Photos. Now we think we know why. The $10 laptop is not a laptop at all, the display-less and keyboard-less prototype device demonstrated is just a 10 x 5-inch wide slab that stores (and apparently prints) distributed learning materials which can later be retrieved by an impoverished child... using a laptop and paper he can't afford to purchase. It's also said to cost $30 and could be a component to a low cost laptop in the future; a claim that is fiercely disputed by Taiwanese component makers. Still, without any official photos of the device or specs posted to one of the many government agencies involved in the project, well, we still can't say we're 100% confident saying what this device is. Not that chest-thumping rhetoric and purposeful misinformation should be a surprise from politicians seeking re-election."

Non-laptop prototype from The Hindu

http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/04/stories/2009020457282000.htm
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/indias-10-laptop-is-not-a-laptop/

[GlockThe Vote]

I have a $269 Ases Netbook that is awesome!

10 hours of battery life and does everything I need.

To me, its way more useful than an Ipad.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

This cannot be! The Steve Jobs has spoken! You cannot have functionality from a netbook, it shall be an iPad!

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I am extremely ashamed for expressing my late, late gratitude for answering my question. Thank you so much.

Please forgive me.

You answered a burning question.

Thank you for the time you took to reply to me along with the photo you so kindly inserted.

I have passed your information to other folks.

My best wishes to you. Your answer was not in vein.