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Canalys announces Netbook Analysis service
– Close monitoring of operator deals provides insight into this
emerging channel
Reading (UK) - Tuesday, 17 March 2009
For immediate release
Canalys today announced the launch of its Netbook Analysis
service, designed to provide close monitoring of activity in this
fast-growing PC category with a particular emphasis on tracking how
mobile operators are developing as a channel for sales of portable
PCs, the models that are being promoted and the subsidies being
applied. Delivering tactical information on the latest partnerships
and deals, and strategic market intelligence on longer-term volume
and channel trends, the service will prove invaluable to the vendors
and service providers for whom it has been specifically designed.
“The netbook has rapidly become one of the most exciting PC
market categories,” said Canalys senior analyst Alastair Edwards.
“The first Linux-based Asus Eee PC may have ignited interest among a
particular group of consumers, but with 5 million netbooks shipping
in EMEA in the second half of 2008 alone, the market has expanded
greatly and the category has already become critical to many of the
major global PC vendors, who are seeing growth slow in other parts
of their business.”
The web-centric usage proposition of these small, inexpensive
portable computers has not just attracted PC vendors and their
customers, but also Internet giants such as Google, and mobile
operators who see the netbook as a vehicle to sign users up to
lucrative mobile broadband service contracts and greatly expand
their customer relationships. “With its functionality and mobility
sitting somewhere between a full-size notebook and a high-end phone,
the netbook category is also drawing attention from smart phone
market leaders, bringing mobile operating systems, for example
Symbian and Android, into play alongside the existing Windows and
Linux models, raising challenges for companies like Microsoft and
Intel and creating opportunities for others, such as Qualcomm and
TI,” commented Tim Coulling, Canalys research analyst.
“Mobile operators and other service providers are becoming more
and more important as a channel for portable PC sales, changing the
established framework of the routes to market for PC vendors and
bringing new business models and up-front device subsidies into the
mix,” Edwards added. “While most offers have been focused on
consumers to date, potential volume sales to SMBs and other
enterprises also cannot be ignored.”
With Canalys’ proven record for market-leading tracking and
analysis, both in channels, smart phones and other mobile devices,
Netbook Analysis must be viewed as an essential source of market
intelligence for product managers, and those involved in strategic
planning, who need to monitor and better understand this emerging
channel for mobile PCs as well as this evolving product category.
Within the service, Canalys analysts track and publish detailed
information on the netbook and notebook mobile broadband deals,
whether using integrated 3G or bundled with USB dongles, being
promoted by the leading mobile operators. These offers are monitored
on a daily basis to provide clients with dynamically updated
intelligence on which operators are working with which brands in the
different countries, and the models, specifications, tariffs and
subsidies that comprise each deal. The service also provides overall
volume forecasts and quarterly market sizing and vendor shares for
netbook and notebook shipments through both established and emerging
channels, regular written analysis and presentations, and unlimited
analyst enquiry on the topic.
About Canalys
Canalys specialises in delivering high quality market data,
analysis and advice to the world’s leading technology vendors. It is
recognised as a key provider of continuous advisory services and
confidential custom projects for marketing managers and strategists
within blue-chip IT, telecoms, navigation and consumer electronics
companies. It has unrivalled expertise in routes to market for all
kinds of high technology products and services in the consumer, SMB
and large enterprise segments, and provides worldwide market data
and trends analysis.
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