BenQ launches netbook in Mideast

Dubai: BenQ hopes to attain a six to 6.5 per cent market share in the laptop market next year from the current market share of close to five per cent, said a company official.

"While notebooks and netbooks are currently driving PC market growth, they also allow the PC to enter a more personal and consumer-oriented sphere where product designing is critical. This is where we come in as an innovative product design expert, which is also one of our core competencies," said Manish Bakshi, general manager for BenQ in the Middle East and Africa.

The Taiwanese firm last week launched its first netbook in the market despite financial turmoil taking place around the globe.

"We have shipped in 2,000 units of Joybook Lite U101 for markets in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and we are seeing strong demand for the product as we are the only one in the market to launch 10.1-inch wide format netbook," he said.

Netbooks are aimed at a range of consumers from students to business travellers and they are viewed by the industry certainly as a laptop replacement but more as a companion device.

According to IDC, mini-notebooks, also known as second PC, contributed 10 per cent of the notebook sales. Total shipments into the region during the third quarter stood at 100,000 units.

Omar Shihab, research manager, PCs and Systems, IDC Middle East and Africa, said netbook sales in the fourth quarter are expected to be in line with the third quarter.

"For the fourth quarter, we expect around 1.2 million PCs to be shipped with a value of around $1 billion [Dh3.67 billion]. There is still a lot of room for growth in notebook segment. For 2008, we expect around 4.5 million PCs to be sold in the Gulf market which is in line with IDC's forecast," Omar said.

IDC said netbook sales in the fourth quarter are expected to be in line with the third quarter.

Joybook Lite U101 works with Windows XP home and has 160GB storage capacity and a user-friendlier keyboard - 90 per cent of the standard keyboard - and priced at Dh1,799.

The company has so far launched 12 laptop models this year and hopes for the same numbers next year.

The UAE was the leader in the notebooks segment with 529,865 units, followed by Saudi Arabia with 323,057, Kuwait with 65,771, Qatar with 34,785, Bahrain with 14,592 and Oman with 13,812 units.