What's this term "netbook" that the kids have been throwing about lately? It's a really small notebook PC - a sub-notebook, if you will. But more specifically, netbooks target those users that just want a machine for core uses - mainly browsing, email, and word processing - and want the lightest, cheapest notebook that'll handle those tasks. While there have long been wee devices in the sub-notebook category (including the palm-sized Toshiba Libretto in 1996), the Eee from Taiwan-based ASUSTek Computer jump-started the idea of netbooks as really low-cost machines when it shipped in 2007 for about US$350.

Low price is driving notebook sales in Japan as well, says Business Computer News (BCN). At retailers throughout the nation in September, models costing JPY100,000 and lower (roughly sub-$1000) made up 52% of notebook computer sales by number of units. Notebooks costing JPY60,000 or less - generally machines described as netbooks - alone accounted for 20% of notebook units sold.  

Japan Acer, the local branch of Taiwan's Acer Computer, took the lion's share (54%) of that sub-JPY60,000 market, on the strength of the Aspire One model introduced just a month earlier in August. ASUSTek came in second, with 37% of unit sales in the category (down from 53% in August). Together, the two models have scooped up over 90% of the fast-growing category, leaving Japanese makers like Toshiba scrambling to catch up.

Revisiting the data to look at size instead of price, BCN reports that notebooks with screens 10 inches or smaller accounted for 24% of notebook unit sales, up from 20% in August. Acer and ASUS again have most of the sales, with Hewlett Packard Japan, Kohjinsha, and MSI fighting for the scraps.

Changing topics, what OS are Japan's buyers getting with their notebooks? The winners are Windows Vista with 72%, Windows XP with 26% (up from 22% in August) and Mac OS X at 2.4%. On the desktop side, those numbers are Vista 86%, XP 4%, and OS X 9%. Or across both categories: Vista 75%, XP 21%, OS X 4%.

Some good economic news: Japan's retail PC unit sales (desktop and notebook) in September were up 23% over the year previous; August sales were up 28% year-on-year. Industry watchers see this as a sign of strength in the PC market, aided by many new product intros this summer and the strength of that netbook market.

As a final note, BCN adds that Mac sales had been showing double-digit year-on-year monthly growth for 13 months straight, including a huge 37% leap in August. But sales were up only 0.1% year-on-year in September, possibly due to rumors over upcoming new products. (In all cases, though, take BCN's Mac data with salt; its numbers comes from POS data at 25 retail chains in Japan, a list which doesn't include the Apple Store.)

More info (Japanese):
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2008/1006/netbook.htm

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