iPad hits Asus Eee PC sales
Netbook popularity plunges
Still not convinced that Apple's iPad is eating into sales of netbooks? Just ask netbook supremo Asus.
Last week, it revealed its netbook sales during Q2 were lower than those it recorded in Q1, and that it anticipates Q3 sales - which includes the back-to-school sales period, traditionally a good time for purveyors of low-cost laptops - will be lower still.
Eee PC sales hit 1.6m units in Q1, falling to 1.5m in Q2. Q3's total will fall to 1.4m units, Asus said, according to DigiTimes. Asus CEO Jerry Shen said the company will continue to punch out netbooks, but of course it has its own media tablet - now Android powered - in the works. ®
COMMENTS
No sympathy
I have no sympathy for Asus. They had a great product with the original eee pc, and then ruined it by making successive models bigger, more expensive and then sticking Windows XP or 7 starter on them.
Still not convinced...
IDC have Q1 combined sales of netbooks from Acer, Samsung & Asus etc at 4.8 million compared to 3.6 Q1 last year.
More interesting use of the statistics would be to look at how, and perhaps why, the Asus share of the netbook market has shrunk, rather than make pointless comparisons with a completely different form factor.
Ahem
More like Asus completely misunderstood the market that they themselves created by bloating up their original cheap and cheerful product to appease their lord and master in Redmond and are now crying foul as their chickens come home to roost.
Seriously?
It's been proven with some hard and fast data that this is directly attributable to the iPad?
Perhaps an ongoing worldwide recession has also dented sales? Perhaps the netbook market has just been flooded? Perhaps the steady creeping up of netbook prices for little additional functionality has affected sales? Loads of factors at play here.
I love the way the article says "low-cost laptops". I don't call £429-£699 cheap!
harbingers
for teh evilll one1
they were but preparing the way.. The Ipad Comethh..
<coff> sorry.. don't know what came over me..
