TAIPEI, TAIWAN: According to statistics of the ITIS project - a project initiated by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs and conducted by Taipei-based Market Intelligence Center  (MIC) - it is expected that the Greater Chinese netbook PC industry's shipment volume will jump to 23.0 million units in 2009. However, due to intensifying price competition in the market, ASP (Average Selling Price) of the industry is expected to fall in 2009, and the industry's shipment value growth in 2009 is not expected to reach the growth level of shipment volume.

Regarding the first quarter of 2009, due to product specification changes, 10-inch netbook PCs will become market mainstream. Acer launched a 10-inch netbook PC product in the first quarter, and Dell is also expected to roll out a 10-inch product. 8.9-inch shipment volume is expected to decrease, to be replaced by 10-inch shipments. However, as 10-inch product shipments are not expected to completely offset the decline in 8.9-inch shipments, Greater Chinese netbook PC shipment volume is forecasted to see a sequential decline in the first quarter of 2009.

In 2008, netbook PCs, which started to emerge at the end of 2007, experienced rapid shipment growth, and many new netbook products were rolled out. Shortages ofIntel Atom processors that appeared at the beginning of the third quarter of 2008 and of film material required for IMR technology were resolved in the fourth quarter.

Low-priced netbook PC products experienced relatively strong sales during the holiday period at the end of 2008 compared to other consumer electronics products such as TVs, mobile phones and GPS (Global Positioning System) devices. With growing end-market demand for netbook PCs, the alleviation of key component shortages, and brand-name vendors' rollouts of new netbook models in the fourth quarter, Greater Chinese netbook PC shipment volume reached 5.23 million units in the fourth quarter of 2008, up 33.3 percent sequentially. The industry's shipment volume reached 11.10 million units for the full-year 2008.

Stimulated by the strong sales of Asus' Eee PCs in Europe and Japan, other brand-name vendors switched from a wait-and-see attitude vis-?vis the netbook product segment to a more aggressive approach. Brands including HP, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, and Lenovo all launched netbook products in 2008. Among these brands, Acer had the best performance.

The Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch netbook PCs began large-scale shipment in the third quarter of 2008. Combined shipment volume of the Acer Aspire One in the third and fourth quarter alone was close to the overall shipment volume of the Asus Eee PC for the full-year 2008. In 2008, Acer and Asus took the lead in the netbook PC market, with their combined shipment accounting for around 80 percent of total netbook PC shipment volume.