Broadband

Mobile broadband demand has rocketed sales of cut down laptops, called netbooks, which within a year of launch now account for 10% of the European PC market.

Figures from IDC and Gartners are predicting further massive growth for the small laptop devices which offer cut-price connectivity without the massive processing power and memory capabilities of top of the range laptops. The main driver behind growth in the market is the likes of Carphone Warehouse and Orange bundling netbooks in to mobile broadband tariffs so customers do not pay up-front for the hardware.

Figures suggest the 2m netbooks that were shipped in Europe during Q3 this year will almost double to nearly 4m in the final quarter of the year in the run up to Christmas.

Much of the new stock expected to hit dealers’ shelves will come from new entrants including Samsung, Apricot, LG, Toshiba and Fujitsu which are all planning to launch their first netbook offerings in time for the busiest quarter of the year. Until now, Asus and Acer have enjoyed 80% of the market but with the huge names in computing entering the market their early dominance is expected to subside.

According to one design expert, the rise in netbook penetration is set to continue and it is all done to usability. Gus Desbarats, Chairman of Alloy Total Product Design, has helped design the first HP personal data assistants and has worked on mobile devices for HP and BT and so knows the limitations of the small screen as well as the back strain of carrying a laptop everywhere. Hence, he claims, netbooks are the perfect ‘middle ground’ for people on the move.

“The most popular device to come out of mobile broadband so far isn’t a snazzy iPhone or some other great looking phone, it’s a dongle,” he says.

“It shows that people just want to be connected and that mobile handsets are too restrictive, there’s only so much you can squeeze on to a tiny screen. So the manufacturers are reacting to this and redefining mobile to include a device that’s big enough to keep you connected and access your data on the move but doesn’t have to have all the power of Vista and lots of memory and processing power you’ll never need to use when picking up email and checking out the occasional web page.”

Not all ISPs are going the bundled netbook route. The country’s biggest broadband provider has so far stuck with the smart phone route for adding mobile broadband to its consumer fixed broadband packages. Customers can pay £5 per month extra to have a smartphone with 3G and wi-fi connectivity.

However, the company is now exploring inclusive laptop connectivity for its business users with an offer for a free dongle for those connected to its Option 2 and Option 3 business broadband packages, which cost £26.99 and £40.50 per month.

The free dongle comes with 2,000 BT Openzone Wi-Fi minutes and a download limit of 1GB per month. It can be added to Option 1 for a fee of £17 per month.

Tags: Mobile Broadband