Acer Review, Asus Review – Netbook 10

While the term ‘netbook‘ can trace its origins to the Psion Netbook, which started it all in the late 1990′s, it never hit name-recall status then. It had to take almost a decade after before a company known for motherboards made a breakthrough.

2007: Asus create the netbooks market.

When Asus introduced its first Eee PC in 2007, it set a huge precedent. By offering the device at an astoundingly low price of $199, Asus did three big things -

1. Re-defined what ‘affordable portable computer’ meant. 
2. Turned a lot of heads, got people interested, and got a lot of people to try out these new ‘netbooks’.  Many buyers found it fair enough to risk their $199 for an utterly unknown but promising product. Its easy to part with $200 for a product that boasts of notebook-like features, 2GB or more flash storage, full Internet readiness, and extreme portability.

In 2007, Asus sold 300,000 Eee PCs and ignited huge interest - the buzz was sufficient to get Acer and a lot of other computer manufacturers’ attention and they jumped into the  netbook market. Total netbooks sold in 2007 was somewhere between 400,000 and 800,000.

2008: Asus lose their #1 spot

Asus made a few missteps in 2008 -

1. Having too many options which confused consumers. 
2. Going with Linux, as users were familiar with, and preferred Windows XP. 
3. Going with SSDs instead of Hard Disk Drives.
4. And finally something for which they cannot be blamed i.e. not being prepared for the huge increase in popularity of netbooks.  

At the same time that Asus was releasing dozens of models and confusing customers with configuration choices,  nearly all PC manufacturers were releasing their own versions of netbooks and 2008 saw the dawn of the netbook wars.

Different manufacturers were taking different approaches and when the smoke finally subsided at the the end of that year, one brand emerged victorious – surprisingly it was not the trailblazing Asus.

The Acer Aspire One wrested away the #1 spot based on a high quality, low priced netbook available in a simple to understand configuration. Acer had 37% of the market, and although the Eee PCs finished at second with 33%, HP, MSI, Samsung, and Dell were making their presence felt.

Total netbooks sold in 2008 were somewhere between 8 million and 14 million, with 10-12 million being the most probable range.

2009: The First 4 months

Its been a time of contrasts – while the Asus CEO is scaling back on projections, a variety of netbook manufacturers are trying a variety of strategies -

1. Acer continues to go with high quality, low priced netbooks. And it continues to lead the market.  
2. Apple, depending on who you believe, is either developing a 10″ multi-touch iNetbook , or sticking wtih the iPhone as their netbook.  
3. Samsung is just producing ridiculously good netbooks (NC10, N120) and threatening to steal away the #2 spot from Asus.
4. Dell is doing a bad job with its Mini line and instead focusing on the high end Adamo line.  
5. HP is doing some innovative things – the Vivenne Tam netbook is a compelling product for the target audience (fashion forward women).
6. And a slew of competitors are trying various other strategies (super low priced, Android based, and so forth).

From where we’re standing it seems that Asus is doing a few good things -

1. Producing some low priced, high quality netbooks like the 1000HE. 
2. Really ramping up the standard for battery life (along with the Samsung N120). 
3. Trying out new markets (for example, targeting gamers with the N10 gaming netbook).

However, Apple and Samsung may very well both overtake Asus in 2009. 2009 is a make or break year for Asus and keeping its #2 spot will be absolutely critical for them to survive in the netbook market long term.

Related posts:

1. The Netbook market – Some research
2. Apple iBook, iNetbook – Why Apple will definitely release a Netbook in 2009
3. The Importance of Price in the Netbook Market
4. Asus 10” Eee PC Netbooks – EeePC 1000, Asus Eee PC S101, Asus 1002HA
5. Acer Aspire Vs Asus EeePC

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