| 21 Dec 2008 |
|
BenQ launches netbook in Mideast
- Text size
Sunday, Dec 21, 2008
Gulf News
Dubai: BenQBenQ
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 BenQBenQ 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.
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.
© Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Loading ...
Post a Comment
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.