Netbooks are getting popular in Bangladesh

Written by Asif Muhammad Iqbal Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Net books with its slim look, have gained enormous popularity in recent years and have reached to the point that they represent a great alternative to a traditional laptop for most users. These mini laptops do most of the jobs people need in an ultra portable form and so the tech-savvy customers are bit by bit convinced by mobility and affordable prices. So this indicates that the latest entry in Bangladesh's portable computer market is in the sales of Net book.

Net books -- also known as sub-notebooks -- are a rapidly developing category of small, light and inexpensive laptop computers suited for general computing and accessing web-based applications. After their origination in late 2000, this mini net books optimized for low weight and low cost. Having smaller screen and keyboard, they offer reduced specificaton and computing power. Net books range in size from below 5 inches to over 13 inches and weigh between 2-3 pounds. Fast enough for most intense applications and have great displays, large hard drives and amazing battery life, light and easy to browse, net books are now earning popularity, mainly among businessmen and students in Bangladesh.Around 20,000 net books of different brands have so far been sold in Bangladesh since 2007. The range of the price's from Tk 25,000 to Tk 40,000 each.

When Asus brought out its first net book, ASUS Eee PC, on the global market in late 2007, net books had entered in Bangladesh. Since 2007, around 5,000 Asus net books have been sold here, according to Global Brand Private Limited, the sole distributor of Asus.

Bangladesh's PC (personal computer) penetration is one of the lowest in the world. However, the growth rate is now quite impressive. A recent study indicates that the PC  growth rate in Bangladesh is around 40 percent per year, according to Bangladesh Computer Samity. Industry insiders said netbooks' popularity depends on availability of the internet. Bangladesh's lower internet penetration rate is not a good sign for netbook sellers. However, officials of Computer Source, a leading computer seller of Bangladesh, said queries for netbooks have increased gradually. At the BCS fair, this company has sold 100 laptops, 20 of which are netbooks. Computer Source brought HP, Fujitsu, Dell and Port link net books to Bangladesh eight months ago. The company sold more than 1,800 net books.

Around 3,000 Acer brand net books were sold in the last one and a half years in Bangladesh market. It is estimated that almost thirty times more net books were sold in 2008. Global netbook makers sold 11.4 million net books in 2008, which was 70 percent more than in 2007. The year 2007 witnessed sales of only four million net books on the global market. For 2009, sales are projected to jump to 35 million, while figure will reach 139 million in 2013, according to ABI Research, a market intelligence company specializing in global connectivity and emerging technology.

In Bangladesh, laptops have become the first choice in case of buying personal PC. However sellers are not ready to think net books will be a segment that may replace laptops soon. MyPortableArena.com is in a way to publishing a well-structured research work on ICT trend of Bangladesh very soon where we can share more on this.