Strongest growth rate for mobile pc market in eight years

According to Gartner, this year on year growth is the highest the mobile pc market has experienced in eight years and represents about $36billion in end user spending. "Mini-notebook pcs were a big part of the bump in mobile pc shipments in the first quarter of 2010, with shipments growing 71% over the same period last year," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "However, mini-notebooks' share slowed in some regions as consumers begin to understand the limitations of mini-notebooks, especially in the face of aggressive price cuts of regular notebooks. "The average selling price (ASP) of mobile pcs was $732 in the first quarter of 2010, a 15.7% decline from the first quarter of 2009, when the ASP was $868," Ms. Kitagawa said. "The ASP for mobile pcs is expected to stabilise as sales into the professional market will grow, resulting in slightly higher ASPs compared to consumer mobile pcs." Gartner forecasts higher growth in the professional market toward the end of 2010 and into 2011 as part of a larger refresh cycle. HP continued to be the No. 1 vendor in worldwide mobile pc shipments, accounting for 19.2% of shipments in the first quarter of 2010. ASUS and Acer experienced the strongest growth rate among the top tier vendors with shipment increases of 113% and 48.4%, respectively. Gartner analysts said this growth was driven by sales in the low end consumer market. Gartner estimates that there are about 500million mobile pcs currently in use worldwide. According to Gartner, products from adjacent categories, such as smartphones and media tablets offer messaging and Web access, which are challenging the key applications for pcs. While Gartner doesn't see these products as a direct replacement for mobile pcs, analysts are closely monitoring how consumers and businesses are using them.