Notebook PCs are becoming increasingly popular, there's no doubt, and will account for almost 25 per cent of all PCs shipped this year, according to a report from LCD-market watcher DisplaySearch.

Some 24.4 million laptops will ship in 2000, the company reckons, an increase of 31.5 per cent on 1999. In total, around 100 million PCs will be shipped this year.

And buyers are also opting for the largest possible screen sizes. During the second quarter of the year, notebooks with a 14.1in or larger LCD accounted for 54 per cent of display shipments, up 26.1 per cent on the same period last year. BY Q2 2002, they will account for 64.9 per cent of the market.

New, hi-res XGA screens took 2.7 per cent of the market during the quarter, the first in which they show non-negligible shipments. By 2002, they will account for 26 per cent of the notebook market, said DisplaySearch.

According to the DisplaySearch numbers, Dell is the world's leading notebook supplier - at least in the three months from April to June - with 16 per cent of the market, well ahead of Toshiba and IBM, traditionally the two key portable PC players. Toshiba's share was 12 per cent; IBM's 11 per cent. ®

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