32.7 Million Netbooks expected in 2009, double than in 2008!

Even though first six months of 2009 have been filled with news about the recession, a Great Recession, including fears of Great Depression and many more, the fact of the matter is that the PC market didn't stagnate.

In a mobile computer market research paper released by DisplaySearch [a division of NPD Group],the analyst group now expects shipments of 32.7 million netbooks, a staggering 99.1% increase over 2008. At the same time, the notebook PC market is expected to shrink by 0.1%. If this really happens and notebook market marks a negative percentile, it will mark the first fall in the history of notebooks.



Percentage-wise, it is expected that the largest growth will happen in North America and Greater China. According to the figures, North America should eat around 8.8 million netbooks [up 136.9%], while the Chinese should buy to 3.9 million, up by 260.3%.

All of these figures actually exclude the smartbook category, formerly known as the MIDs [Mobile Internet Device] - it is widely expected that smartbooks will be offered for free with a data subscription plan, heavily subsidized by telecom operators around the globe. This is where nVidia and Qualcomm see their chance.