Netbooks sales will pass 50 millions by 2015, while smartbooks will pass 160 millions

I’ve noticed a couple of different studies lately predicting how will sales figues looks for mobile computers in a couple of years.

One of them, released by PRweb, predicts netbooks market to blow to around 54 millions by 2015. This number sounds pretty reasonable, considering already around 20 millions such mini laptops were sold last year. Also, customers appetite for light mobile notebooks will grow, as these devices will become better and better in terms of performances, while offering good autonomy and good connectivity (probably with 3G and WiMax as standard features by that time). So, everything looks great for the netbooks market right now.

Also, there’s another more interesting rapport from ABIResearch, that claims that by 2015, smartbooks sales will pass 160 millions. Say what? Yes, 160 millions. And while smartbooks (non-Intel x86 device with a mobile operating system) might offer some advantages over standard netbooks, with their even more compact shape and permanent connection to broadband networks, currently this market is infinitely smaller than the one for mini laptops.

So, while producers like Qualcomm, Freescale, Lenovo, NVIDIA or HP gather forces to enter this still undisputed niche, i find it hard to believe it will grow so big so fast. Even if touch-tablets are included as smartbooks in this raport (and they probably are, otherwise the numbers are just inexplicable), i for one can’t see these light and low-powered devices getting so popular in just 5 years. Or perhaps smart-phones are also in the same bucket?

Now, what do you folks think of these predictions?

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Tags: future

Last updated: September 29, 2011 | Published: February 24th, 2010 | See the comments or add yours!