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Consumers expected to continue buying small netbook PCs in holiday season(Canadian Press DataFile Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) MONTREAL _ More and more consumers have been buying small and portable computers called netbooks and the trend is expected to continue in the holiday season, says high-tech trend watcher IDC Canada. The demand for netbooks, also called mini notebooks, was so strong that it helped the personal computer market rebound in the third quarter, IDC said Thursday. ``There is almost a frantic demand for mini notebooks by consumers,'' said Tim Brunt, senior analyst in personal computing and technology. ``Their growth is unheard of,'' he said, adding that price is the driving factor. Netbooks, which can cost as low as $199 but average about $300, let users do basic tasks like surf the Internet and check email. Brunt said this holiday season could be the best time ever to buy a low-priced netbook. He noted that consumers don't seem concerned that netbooks can have older operating systems, often with Windows XP, aren't very powerful and don't have much memory storage. ``If you look at the top things that people use their PCs for at home, all of it is online activities and all of it is easily handled by a mini notebook.'' Netbooks were also pushing down the price of laptops, with some as low as $500 and under, he said. IDC says 1.7 million PCs were shipped in Canada, up 3.6 per cent from the same quarter last year. It also says netbooks sales have helped to push down the price of laptops. About 22 per cent of all portable PCs shipped in the quarter were netbooks, he said. The most popular brands in Canada in the quarter, ended Sept. 30, were HP, Acer, Dell, Apple, Toshiba and Lenovo, Brunt said. Apple doesn't have a netbook at this time. The desktop PC market continued to decline, shrinking 26.9 per cent year-over year, IDC said. U.S.-based research firm Gartner said worldwide PC shipments returned to growth in the quarter with netbooks playing a key role in the increase. Almost 81 million PCs were shipped, up 0.5 per cent from the same quarter last year, Gartner said in preliminary results. Globally, HP, Acer and Dell were the top three for PC shipments in the quarter, Gartner said. (c) 2009 The Canadian Press |