Telcos have started to dominate netbooks as established
PC vendors move too slowly to capture the market.
According to half-year research figures from channel analyst
Canalys, 13.5m netbooks were sold globally in the first six months
of 2009 and a large number of telcos have been pushing them.
Globally more than 50 telcos are now selling netbooks with HP
winning the most deals followed by Samsung. But suppliers including
Sony, Toshiba and Lenovo have not been as quick to sign up supply
deals with telcos.
"Traditional notebook category leaders - including Lenovo,
Fujitsu, Sony and Toshiba - have been slow to recognise how quickly
the market is changing around them and as a group have signed fewer
than 10 operators," said Tim Coulling, a research analyst at
Canalys.
"The four PC vendors with the most telco deals across Europe
last month were Samsung, Asus, HP and Acer," he added.
Coulling said the reason for Samsung's rise was its experience
in the mobile phone market.
Canalys research also indicated netbooks are being sold as
additional devices rather than laptop replacements. The analyst
said it expected Windows 7 to provide a boost to the PC market on
its launch next month.