Economy Pushing Netbook Adoption

By Doug Olenick On Apr 20 2009 - 6:00am

In an odd twist, the struggling economy will prove to be a positive for netbook sales this year, according to DisplaySearch.

The research company is predicting that netbook sales will increase 65 percent in 2009, while the full-size laptop market will scratch out a 3 percent uptick. About 27 million netbooks will ship worldwide in 2009, compared with 133 million full-size notebooks.

Driving this trend is the low average selling price netbooks sport plus the larger displays manufacturers can offer due to lower LCD costs, said John Jacobs, DisplaySearch’s notebook market research director.

However, Jacobs does not see this as a long-term trend, but he expects consumers to return to full-size laptops when the economic crisis ends. This is due to their low computing ability and poor Web-browsing stamina.