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Netbooks fuel 40% notebook growth in UK

by Scott Bicheno on 17 October 2008, 17:22

Tags: Acer (TPE:2353), IDC

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qapth

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Reasons to be cheerful

Market researcher IDC will be announcing its preliminary results for the July-September quarter next Monday, but HEXUS.channel was able to speak to senior analyst Eszter Morvay (pictured) to get a sneak preview.

Market Segment Units Year-on-year change
Desktop   ~1,100,000 -13%
  Consumer 343,000 -9%
  Business 790,000 -14%
Notebook   ~2,200,000 +40%
  Consumer ~1,300,000 +58%
  Business 946,000 +18%
Total   ~3,400,000 +15.4%

While the desktop market continues to contract, the rate of contraction, especially in the consumer segment, is slowing. We asked Morvay why she thinks this is. "Consumer desktops have become a high-end market and the low-end is nonexistent. Quad core processors are present in up to half of consumer desktops."

So it looks like the consumer desktop market is stabilising around the enthusiast/gamer user and we might well see it stay at around 3-350,000 units for the foreseeable future.

The pleasantly surprising news is that the UK notebook market doesn't seem to have got the memo about the world coming to an end and is still red hot. Here are the preliminary figures for the UK: