Mobile PC market has experienced highest year-over-year growth in eight years, with shipments increasing 43.2% to 49.4 million in the first quarter of 2010, compared to same period last year, according to final results by IT research and advisory firm Gartner.
The firm said that consumer segments continued to be the main growth driver, but there was also an uptake in the professional segment as well. Gartner expects to see higher growth in the professional market towards the end of 2010 and into 2011 as part of a larger refresh cycle.
HP gained the top spot in worldwide mobile PC shipments, accounting for 19.2% of the total market share, even though its growth was below worldwide average during the quarter.
ASUS and Acer experienced strong growth rates among the top-tier vendors with shipments increasing 113% and 48.4%, respectively. Acer accounted for 18.5% of the total market share, while ASUS accounted for 8.8%.
Dell gained the third spot with PC shipments increasing 33.1%, representing 11.5% market share, while Toshiba gained fourth spot 9.3% market share.
Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said: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. 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. 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.
