While it's true that the introduction of netbooks may have somewhat affected the market for notebooks, netbook cannibalization isn't quite the monster some claim it to be. The claim is that because people are buying netbooks instead of notebooks, sales of the latter have greatly suffered.
Yes, some people buy netbooks instead of notebooks but for the most part, individuals buy netbooks as secondary computing devices. Empirical data gathered by market research firm DisplaySearch qualifies this statement.
According to John Jacobs, Director of Notebook Market Research for DisplaySearch, people buy netbooks for their basic computing needs, but are still interested in buying notebooks as well.
According to DisplaySearch's figures, the netbooks' share of the total portables market rose from 5.6% in the second quarter of 2008 to 22.2% in the respective quarter of 2009. DisplaySearch's data also shows that the netbook segment is growing twice as fast as the notebook segment.
But now that the fine line between a netbook and a notebook is further blurring, with some netbooks being able to accommodate up to 4 GB of RAM and some notebooks being only slightly heavier than netbooks, perhaps growth patterns will also start to change. We'll keep you posted on the progress.
Via TheInquirer.
Image via BlogCDN.
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