Netbook Market Will Reportedly Continue To Decline In 2011

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The demise of the netbook market is not a new topic. For some, it has been a topic that has been talked about since they first became popular. That said, it looks like there has been a resurgence in the death of the netbook talk and some reports are now suggesting that players such as Asus will continue to lower prices while others such as MSI will be phased out entirely.

And the interesting part, this will all happen as we go into the new year. Yup, it seems this latest is suggesting that tablet will finally win out over the netbook and that “netbook shipments in 2011 are expected to see an obvious drop with only Asustek and Acer pushing volumes, while smaller vendors such as MSI are phased out of the market.”

Personally, I see a market for both the tablet and the netbook and regularly use an iPad as well as an Eee PC in my household. Of course, the tablet seems to have replaced the trendiness that was once found with netbooks. Bottom line, it seems the netbook market has shifted from people wanting one because they were the cool thing to have, to people wanting one because they like them or have a use for one. Needless to say, that means the market will have less demand.

Further details coming from DigiTimes include that retail pricing for Asus branded netbooks running the N550 and N450 processor will drop in the new year along with models from other manufacturers including HP, Toshiba, MSI and Acer.

Furthermore, tablet shipments are expected to grow to “over 40 million units in 2011″ and it seems that even the wireless carriers are becoming less willing to bundle notebooks with 3G/4G and are shifting focus to touchscreen devices. Of course, what this comes down to is personal preference. And strangely, as much as I have, use and like netbooks — I never would have gotten one on a 3G carrier plan, but somehow feel devices such as the iPad and Galaxy Tab are better with a 3G carrier plan.