Apple just finished introducing their latest product; the iPad. Small, slick, typically great looking, and well priced at $499 it is an interesting, but ultimately not breakthrough device. In fact it reminds one very much of a netbook. A companion device to your main computer (or iPod in this case) that allows you to have a more focused web experience and a more media-centric device at a lower price, which is much of what the netbook is evolving towards.
Read more »
Apple’s iPod led many to opine that the future of consumer electronics lie in the integration of hardware, software, and services, the so-called “CE 2.0.” I would certainly concur that “beyond the box” solutions — particularly software for unconnected devices that compose the vast volume of the industry — can lead to many benefits such as competitive differentiation and a better overall user experience.
Read more »
More and more today’s netbook market reminds me of the movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai.” In that classic, Alec Guinness commanded a group of British POWs in Southeast Asia during WWII tasked to build a bridge for a Japanese railway. But in his zeal to build the bridge, Guinness’ character, Colonel Nicholson, lost sight of its true purpose and only saw it as means to an end, whereas it was really an end in and of itself. The netbook market is headed in this direction too. We are in process of taking a limited-use, purpose-built PC, designed to do just a few tasks and turning it into a viable alternative to what was delivered previously. The end result - a product that will soon be far better than it should or needs to be and will end up destroying the market it was supposed to build.
Read more »
Returning from CES it occurred to me that I don’t remember when one of the major pieces of CES buzz was around a specific PC product. For better or for worse, this year the netbook was that product. (Of course I could make an argument that everything at CES is now about PC technologies, PC- like business models, and PC connectivity and that CES is more like Comdex now than ever…but I won’t).
Read more »
One of the biggest stress points of this holiday season in the PC business has been the status of the emerging class of small notebooks, dubbed “netbooks.” While netbooks have been around for about a year, until very recently, they were the province of the early adopter with a heavy ecommerce bent. According to NPD’s retail tracking service, 88% of all netbook sales were made in ecommerce between Q4 2007 and Q2 2008. Even in Q3, the largest notebook opportunity of the year, netbooks in ecommerce outsold those in traditional retail (2/3 to 1/3). But in October we finally got a taste of what the netbook market could really be as netbooks finally hit the volume opportunity of U.S. retail. In October, 60% of netbook sales were at retail, and unit volume nearly equaled the entire volume of Q3. To put the opportunity in real context, for those who think ecommerce sales are a significant netbook opportunity, the sales results for netbooks in Q4 2007 through Q2 2008 represented less than 1% of consumer notebook sales. Even in Q3, when sales began to appear in retail, netbooks were less than 2% of all notebook sales. Finally the October numbers show some real measurable volume with netbooks accounting for over 6% of consumer notebook sales and early November results show netbook sales at about 5% of total volume.
Read more »
Hi everyone. It’s my pleasure to welcome you to NPD’s official blog with this inaugural post. As some readers may know, I’ve been blogging for a few years now and am delighted to see NPD proper join the conversation alongside our DisplaySearch colleagues.
My fellow analysts and I will use this forum to offer our perspective on issues affecting our dynamic industry. Our viewpoint is shaped by NPD’s unique point-of-sale and consumer information resources, which help our clients and us understand what is happening in the world of consumer technology and why. It seems appropriate to use Black Friday, the most disruptive day in electronics retailing, as the catalyst to launch our entry into this disruptive medium.
The Consumer Technology Holiday Spotlight Report, now going out to some NPD clients, included the results of a fourth-quarter survey that asked consumers about their holiday plans. Questions focused on popular holiday categories, including flat-panel TVs, notebook and desktop PCs, portable navigation devices, digital cameras, MP3 players and digital picture frames. NPD also asked consumers about what would most motivate them to shop for doorbuster specials or to shop later in the day on Black Friday.
NPD found that the largest segments of likely buyers said they definitely or probably would completely abstain from categories they intended to purchase due to the economy. I’ve already shared some thoughts on the results of this research in my most recent Tech on Deck column.
Read more »
Consumer Technology | Stephen Baker, Vice President, Industry Analysis | 
January 27, 2010 4:32 pm | 
Comments (2) 
Subscribe
