This is the forth report on key trends in PCs below 12” screen size appearing in the German market through the popular price comparison engine, Geizhals.at . (Based on SKUs, not model families.) The last one was done in November 2009

In this report you’ll see the big jump in numbers coming from the new Pinetrail devices. Below the graphs I highlight some key numbers.

Number of SKUs in the market.

The big jump in numbers is clear to see from the top graph. Total numbers jumped by 115 with Pinetrail making up a large portion of that number. A bigger trend I’m seeing is the introduction of 1366×768 displays. Nearly all of the 101 devices with hi-res screens have appeared in 2010.

Other ‘trends’ that are clear from the data provided in the comparison engine:

• 78% of the devices are running on Intel Atom. Remember that the segment includes some devices running laptop-grade CPUs. This is not just an analysis of netbooks.
• The percentage of devices in the 10% segment dropped but the number of devices still rose.
• There were percentage increments in the 5”, 8”, 9” (ipad) segments. Previous reports showed decline in these segments.
• Only 5% of the devices are offered with Linux.
• There’s a 3:2 ratio of Glossy to Matt screens.
• Only 10% of the devices weigh 1KG or less.
• Very few Nvidia ION devices have reached the market. Only 3% include the ION option and all of these are ION V1. Devices with Pinetrail + ION are expected in the next snapshot so this number should increase.
• The cheapest device (based on lowest price offered) is still the Hercules E-Cafe EC800 is more expensive now – 183 Euros (up from 151) but the cheapest Intel Atom netbook isn’t far behind at only 188 Euros. (lowest price.)

One thing I note every time I do this is that there are a lot of end-of-life PCs still being offered. For example, the EeePC 701 is still hanging around. It’s difficult to measure but it looks like up to 100 of the devices in the market are remnants.

When we look again in June I expect we’ll see a much smaller increase in numbers. The first ION2 devices will appear though and if the ‘tablets’ and MIDs start flowing into the market as promised, we should see growth, albeit very small,  in the sub 1KG and sub 10” segments with a corresponding increase in non-Windows numbers.

A few months ago I took hold of the 4.1” Toshiba TG01 and said no! It’s too big for my pocket.

It’s the size that really struck me. For a phone, it’s HUGE! There’s simply no way that the average person is going to be able to use this as a 24/7 phone. I don’t mean to imply that the TG01 is meant to be a 24/7 phone but it proves that convergence between the full internet minimum screen resolution of 800×480 and the 24/7 total convergent device is simply not going to happen for most people.

Yesterday, following news on the HTC Leo, a Snapdragon powered 4.3” slate phone that we covered a while back, WMPoweruser asks the same question.

It seems that most of you readers really are happy with big screen devices.

52% of UMPCPortal readers voted ‘No’ 4.3” is not too big for a pocketable phone.

64% of WMPowerUser readers voted ‘No’ 4.3” is not too large on the HTC Leo.

This drive for convergence doesn’t bring me any closer to my ideal 3-device strategy but I’m happy to accept that there are a ton of people out there that want ONE device to cover phone, MID, navigation, camera and a certain amount of productivity tasks. All I can say is that that the voting numbers probably represent a niche of high-end gadget and mobility users and that I fit into a class of people that doesn’t wear cargo pants!

On a serious note though, I find this drive for convergence a bit cheap from a marketing perspective. I think the long-term practicalities of converged devices are limited, that quality suffers due to physical constraints and that eventually, people end up buying dedicated tools for their tasks anyway. The marketing people just want you to THINK that it can do everything. Don’t they?

I’m guessing we’ll have a good discussion about this below and that someone will say – ‘the best camera/pnd/pmp/umpc/mid is the one you have with you.’ You have a good point. I’m off to have another sleepless night over the matter.

I’m on my way to MBC09, the microblogging conference that starts tomorrow in Hamburg so its a good opportunity to do some more testing.

OQO 2+, Wibrain i1 and a mobile phone on a seat-back table.

It’s very thin and about as wide as most netbooks. The slim depth makes it look a little too long but even so, its not badly proportioned.

Here’s the Vaio P500 with a Gigabyte M528 and an ASUS Eee PC 901.

The design is very slick though. Undeniably stylish.