Sub 12″ PC Screen Size Analysis. November 2009

Posted on 12 November 2009, Last updated on 14 November 2009 by

Back in May, I took a look at the small screen PC market to try and determine the distribution of screen sizes. I did the same in September.

Today I’ve been through the figures again and the same trend continues. There are less sub 10 inch screens on the market and far more 10 inch and 11 inch devices. I’m still ignoring the 12 inch sector but a quick glance reveals that that sector is growing too.

sub12netbooks

The 10 and 11 inch screen sizes now make up 93.5% of the sub-12″ devices in the German market.  Nearly all of these are netbooks.

  • The 11 inch segment grew another = 43% (The segment has doubled in just 6 months)
  • The 8 inch segment is down by over 80% in 6 month.
  • The average weight is still increasing.
  • The number of devices is up 26% in 6 months.
  • The cheapest device is 151 Euro (down 9 Euros in 2 months.)

Once again it’s sad news for those wanting ultra mobile PCs but good for those wanting cheap laptops.

15 Comments For This Post

  1. Steve 'Chippy' Paine says:

    Sub 12" PC Screen Size Analysis. Nov 2009. 11" segment up 43%, 8" segment down 80% in 6 months. Goodbye mobile netbooks! http://bit.ly/o0n7O

  2. Mike Cane says:

    At J&R in NYC (a major electronics store), you can’t buy anything that’s not 10″ miniumum. I think that segment — below 10″ — has simply stopped being made.

  3. ramin assadollahi says:

    pretty cool idea to track the market, haven’t seen such a research somewhere else. would be interesting to have the same thing about touchscreen devices.
    (personally, i think that netbooks will evolve in slates in the 5-9 inch screen size, cf archos 9, what you see here is that the current netbooks simply nab market share from traditional notebooks)

  4. Chippy says:

    It’s not perfect research by any means but as a European statistic it’s a good indicator.

  5. tino says:

    Can you give the model list? There are 8″ device? Wha!

    I think the market trend is decided by which low end chip intel is trying to push.

  6. squirrel says:

    8″ means 8,9″ i’m sure :-)

  7. Velik says:

    Im sure trending will change back to smaller devices when those atoms evolve a bit more ( more power, less power consumption )

  8. Realty says:

    In the major distribution channels in the US, Best Buy, Walmart, CDW… 10 inches is as small as it gets. Only the exotic importers like Dynaism or Mobilx offer smaller. Once Archos and Viliv break into the mass market retailers, you will see those numbers for smaller screens increase. Except for the fanatics like us, the average guy or gal does not know that the under 10 inch stuff exists at all. If they saw one by mistake, Im sure they would confuse it for a giant cell phone:(

  9. Knusperkeks says:

    Wow, interesting results…
    Which 5″ device is here in germany avaliable?

  10. netbook reviews says:

    the screen size is about to go back to 10 with microsoft dropping the max screen size specs from 11.6 to 10 for win7, unless manufacturers just ignore their rules (which they usually do anyway)

  11. ramin assadollahi says:

    @knusperkeks: you can buy the archos 7 here, it’s a five inch android mid. especially lecker with the SSD option.

  12. ramin assadollahi says:

    @netbook reviews: and google should increase the screen resolution for android. to me that’s an even more important point when it comes to the <9 in market.

  13. Seika says:

    How about the statistic in Japan? It’s awfully difficult to find small notebooks with decent price but has lower profile than the 10″-ers

    Much with fixup in the previous survey, it’s about the idea of “full size keyboard” than force them to make either 10″ screen device, or small screen with big keyboard (e.g: Vaio P).

  14. admin says:

    You can view all devices here.
    http://geizhals.at/eu/?cat=nb12

  15. Another guy says:

    10″ with 1300×768 resolution is pretty perfect for a cheap netbook. I don’t really see a point on the 11″ since that’s getting too close in size and weight to a full-deck 12″ powerhouse (dual core, 4mb Ram, etc)

Search UMPCPortal

Find ultra mobile PCs, Ultrabooks, Netbooks and handhelds PCs quickly using the following links:

Acer Aspire Switch 10
10.1" Intel Atom Z3745
Acer C740
11.6" Intel Celeron 3205U
VIA Nanobook
7.0" VIA C7-M
Lenovo Ideapad Flex 10
10.1" Intel Celeron N2806
Acer Aspire E11 ES1
11.6" Intel Celeron N2840
Dell Chromebook 11
11.6" Intel Celeron 2955U
Dell Latitude E7440
14.0" Intel Core i5-4200U
Acer TravelMate B113
11.6" Intel Core i3
HP Elitebook 820 G2
12.5" Intel Core i5 5300U
Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-131
11.6" Intel Celeron N2807