Vendors
Moving on to vendors, IDC confirmed the trend we first reported late last year that Acer has overtaken first-to-market ASUS in the mini-notebook market. This is particularly impressive as Acer has been less dependent on telco bundle deals than many other vendors, like ASUS, HP, Samsung and Dell.
Top 5 Vendors: EMEA Mini-Notebook Shipments, 4Q08
| Vendor | Units (000) | % Market Share |
| Acer | 1,095 | 30.3 |
| ASUS | 1,011 | 28 |
| HP | 253 | 7 |
| Samsung | 232 | 6.4 |
| Dell | 156 | 4.3 |
| Others | 864 | 23.9 |
| Total | 3,610 | 100 |
Source: IDC EMEA Quarterly PC Tracker, Final Results, 4Q08
IDC expects this trend to continue, with tastes gravitating more towards larger ten inch screen models. Generally improved specs are expected to make mini-notebooks more appealing to businesses too.
The increase in integrated 3G in netbooks is expected to entrench the convergence of the IT and telco channels where mini-notebooks are concerned. The mini-notebook category is expected to continue to be a major source of growth for the PC industry and thus continue to be a disruptive technology.
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