Netbook Review – Acer, Asus Netbook Review

When “netbooks” were intially released, unexpected reception and high sales figures led to the birth of an ever growing market – Now, Acer chairman J.T Wang predicts that netbook sales could reach 50 million global sales by the end of 2010.

In the beginning, the original ASUS Eee PC was released by the Taiwanese company ASUS with a simple aim of making compact, cheap and capable computers – Quickly, its positive reception gave confidence to companies such as Dell and Acer to invest in the ultra portable machines.

Today, we still stand in one of the worst global recessions in history and leading technology consultant firms such as iSuppli are expecting a reduction in global growth of the PC industry(data from iSuppli).

Despite predicted economical and industrial declines – the relatively new netbook sector is not only surviving but it is forecast to have an unprecedented amount of sales again in 2009, and this is very likely to continue into the year 2010.

Market leaders Acer, ASUS and Samsung are a large reason why the global netbook sales have been forecast to be 30-35 million global sales by the end of 2009 (data from ABIresearch) – The three companies have grown a reputation for producing the highest quality netbooks and this has been reflected in their sales figures.

When you take this into consideration along with several upcoming developments, it appears that 2010 will be an even better year.

The already well received Windows 7 will be available to the general public this October. It appears that Microsoft’s new operating system is likely to have a positive effect on netbook sales as it is likely to lift plenty of the hardware restrictions that current netbooks have faced.

Apple have also seen a profitable opportunity in investing in the netbook market. They intend to create an Apple Netbook which could be released as early as September. This could have a great impact considering that they already have a large market share in portable computers.

Fairly new competitors Google have recently announced that they would be creating their own operating system which is completely aimed at the netbook market. Netbooks using the operating systems are intended for sale in 2010. These machines could be far cheaper and faster in comparison to those using Windows or Apple operating systems.

All of this along with the investments from more multinational companies such as Toshiba and Sony will help further speed up the already fast growing netbook market.

It now appears that the prediction by Acer chairman J.T Wang of 50 million netbook sales globally in 2010 (data from CDN)  is in fact a very realistic number.

Filed under: Netbook