Notebook PCs outship Desktop PCs for the first time

Notebook computers are becoming more and more popular. The combination of increasingly powerful features , dropping prices of these units as well as the portability of these gadgets have made it attractive to consumers to buy them over desktop PCs. Given these reasons it is really not surprising to find out that the global shipment of notebook computers has now gone past the shipment of desktop PCs for the very first time.

This significant event happened during the third quarter of this year and marks as a watershed in the computer industry. This is a paradigm shift in the way the mass market looks at PCs as it now unequivocally says that it prefers laptops.

According to iSuppli, shipment of notebooks PCs increased by 40 percent in the third quarter of 2008, compared to 2007 figures for the same quarter. This amounts to 38.6 million units. On the other hand, the shipment of desktop PCs has dropped by 1.3 percent (about 38.5 million units) for the same period.

According to iSuppli, the momentum for notebook PCs has been building in the market so this development has been more or less expected. The shift to notebooks means that the market does not see these devices as merely for business purposes or those with deep pockets. It is now officially a product for the masses.

Hewlett-Packard still holds the top position among manufacturers for the third quarter of 2008. Dell (http://www.dell.com) follows with Acer getting the third position in the market. Acer also holds the distinction of having performed the most remarkably this year with its market share growing by 45 percent and 79 percent on a year-to-year basis.

Find Liveguy and grab yourself a Dell netbook

LiveGuy will be travelling the length and breadth of the country taking in 11 cities in 11 days from Edinburgh to London. Each day LiveGuy will be giving away three Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Netbooks with Vodafone built-in mobile broadband to anyone who can find him and say the magic words “You’re LiveGuy and I’m a Vodafone winner”. Online users can also win a netbook by pinpointing LiveGuy on a Google Map.

The laptop’s pretty small and dinky – it has an 8.9″ screen and weighs less than 1kg with a built in broadband connections (up to 7.2Mb/s)

LiveGuy will be on the move using his netbook to post clues and pictures as to his whereabouts through his blog which you can find at www.findliveguy.com, on his Facebook
profile, his YouTube Channel, Picassa and Twitter

The mobile broadband netbook can be purchased at http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband-devices/netbook?compatible=false. It is currently free on a 24 month contract, for £25 you get 1gig bandwidth per month and the £30 plan gives you 3gig.