Notebook sales boom in Q2

Australian notebook sales increased by 25 percent sequentially in the second calendar quarter, driven largely by the release of sub-$1000 models to retail, according to researcher IDC.

IDC said the introduction of $999 notebooks in mid to late May had given unseasonable strength to the consumer notebook market. Acer and HP had been selling those models through retailers BigW, Harvey Norman and Officeworks, the researcher said.

Sales in the consumer market grew 65 percent from the last quarter and 116 percent from the second quarter of 2004, IDC said.

Raymond Vardanega, marketing director at Acer, recently told CRN the vendor had sold around 20,000 units of its $999 model through retail.

IDC said those promotions helped Acer nudge into the top market spot with a 20.34 percent share, beating HP's 20.26 percent share by only 256 units.

Toshiba was third with 15.9 percent, Dell fourth with 14.7 percent and Lenovo fifth with 7.6 percent. Acer made the largest leap forward, gaining 6.5 percent market share on its first quarter.

A total 330,127 notebooks were shipped in the second quarter of 2005. In the consumer market, 48.7 percent of all PCs sold were laptops, according to IDC's senior analyst of PC hardware, Michael Sager.

Fujitsu and Samsung sales fell in the quarter. Competition was intense and the market was bordering on saturation, IDC said.

Meanwhile, sales of unbranded laptops or “white-books” were growing slower than sales of multinational branded gear, the researcher said.