Notebook shipments leapt 43 p.c. in Q1

LONDON, UK: Shipments of notebook computers leapt 43 per cent in the first quarter, their highest year-on-year growth in eight years, driven by consumer demand for netbooks, IT research firm Gartner said on Tuesday.

Average selling prices dropped 16 per cent to $732 as many consumers chose inexpensive netbooks - mini-notebooks with pared-down features - over more sophisticated laptop computers. Total notebook sales rose 21 per cent to $36.1 billion.

Hewlett-Packard remained the top vendor, with 19.2 per cent of the market, but number two Acer narrowed the gap, increasing shipments by 48 per cent to secure an 18.5 per cent share.

Taiwan's Asustek, a pioneer of the netbook market with its Eee PC, more than doubled its shipments to win 8.8 per cent of the market, in fifth place behind Dell at number three and Toshiba at number four.

"Mini-notebook PCs were a big part of the bump in mobile PC shipments in the first quarter of 2010, with shipments growing 71 per cent," principal Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said.

"However, mini-notebooks' share slowed in some regions as consumers begin to understand the limitations of mini-notebooks, especially in the face of aggressive price cuts of regular notebooks," she added in a statement.

Gartner said it had seen some increase in demand from the professional market, which it expected to accelerate towards the end of the year and into 2011 as companies started to resume delayed purchases to replace ageing equipment.