GFK ANALYSIS HARDWARE
A booming sector
This month, GfK business group director Carl West discusses the performance of webbooks (tablets) and what we can expect from this burgeoning segment during the all-important Christmas period...
“With an increase of 225% volume since June, the IT market
is watching webbooks to see if there is a threat towards traditional PC form factors.”
Carl West
OVERALL, it was a stable September. Peripherals, networking and storage have remained level, but software saw some growth in volume as heavy promotions in retail for security software hit the shelves. E-book readers continued to grow but experienced value declines due to price drops. The big news for IT is the decline in netbooks in August compared to August 2009. Webbooks (tablets) have taken some blame in the press for the
decline in netbook sales, but in September they were back in volume and value growth compared to last year. With an increase of 225 per cent
volume since June 2010, the IT market is watching webbooks to see if there is a threat towards traditional PC form factors. Historically this category has been dominated by internet surfers and media players, but these are being converged into multi-content devices. Webbooks have primarily been sold in the retail channels but as more brands release their version of this form factor, GfK is also seeing sales within both IT mail-order and IT resellers. One area of webbooks that is
creating a split in model features is the storage capacity. Price point clearly has a factor on the internal storage supplied, but as can be seen from the chart, over 80 per cent of the sales units are 16GB and above. Before May 2010 the largest share of webbooks had 2GB with an expansion slot for flash memory upgrades. Since July, the 2GB has found its level and is now averaging at nine per cent. In September there were five brands in the UK market actively selling in retail and business. The number will
www.pcr–
online.biz
increase to 13 based on manufacturer product roadmaps for 2010. The increase in models ranging from £89.99 to over £600 will provide a greater choice for the consumer. Mobile operators have already embraced the subsidised price modelling for this new form factor which in the past was dominated by netbooks and lower end notebooks. Another benefit of this new form
factor will be the creation of a lucrative accessories market. As webbook vendors look to follow similar screen size increments and power socket size, the opportunity for cases, charging, leads, protection, audio, and input devices will continue to grow. Press coverage has shown the imminent release of other webbooks over the Christmas period which have low storage capacity but with an expansion. Based on the specifications of the new models there will be an increased volume share of lower capacity webbooks. These new models will create demand for flash memory cards as users strive to store more on their devices because, as can be seen in the chart, consumers require higher storage capacity.
December PCR 51
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