Netbook Sales Surge, Leaving Some Companies Behind

Computer research firm NPD expects netbook sales to rise to 20% of total laptop sales this year. That would put unit sales just shy of 33 million, a increase of 100% over 2008. The regions expected to have the most significant growth are North America and China.

Notebook sales are expected to be flat for the year. The news does not favor Sony and Dell which have been late to the netbook  market and have a relatively small market share.

The most recent IDC data show Taiwan’s Acer has almost a third of the netbooks market followed fairly closely by rival Asustek. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Lenovo, and Samsung have much more modest pieces of the pie.

The numbers indicate that Apple (AAPL), Dell (DELL), and Sony (SNE) have a problem. Apple does not sell a netbook-equivalent. Sony just entered the market, and Dell has lagged, being late to take advantage of its size as it has been with many other products.

The netbook business may end up being Apple’s Achilles heel. Sony and Dell are already so beaten down that their problems extend well beyond whether they have any strength in the newest part of the PC market.

Douglas A. McIntyre