Shipments of low price mini notebook PC shipment could reach 8.02 million units in 2008 globally, reckons the Taiwanese Market Intelligence Center (MIC), Taiwan. The shipment volume is expected to reach 18.3 million units in 2009, showing an annual growth of 128%.
 
MIC Senior Industry Analyst Chris Wei said that the Asus Eee PC dominated the low-price mini notebook PC market in the first half of 2008. Acer launched the Aspire One notebook PC, which is very reasonably priced. Wei added that price competition is expected in the second half of 2008 and that vendors may improve product specifications to make their products more competitive. Ultimately, consumers will benefit from these trends.

The mainstream screen size of the low-price mini notebook PCs is progressively growing from seven inch to 8.9 and 10 inch screens. Most of the new mini notebook PCs launched in 2008 have 8.9 inch screens and most of them prefer Windows XP for the OS. Linux is seen as a second choice option.

Keyboard sizes of mini notebook PCs are closer to that of regular notebook PCs now. HP, Dell and Acer focus on 8.9 inch products, while MSI's models have 10 inch screens. Competition is expected to increase, with HP, Dell and Acer, the top three players in the global market for notebook PCs, launching new products to target this segment.

All this is likely to stimulate market growth. X