Acer and Asus stop producing netbooks

In 2009, ABI Research predicted that 139 million netbooks would be sold in 2013 (originally netbooks were devices with Intel Atom processors and screens less than 10 inches diagonally - although the definition has become more vague over time). However, according to The Guardian, netbook sales in 2013 will actually be much closer to zero than to 139 million.

The publication refers to the Taiwanese site Digitimes, which said that Asus, which actually created the netbook market after the release of the Eee PC in 2007, announced the discontinuation of the Eee PC from today. Acer also no longer intends to produce netbooks - and this means that the netbook market will officially disappear when the two companies sell off the remaining stocks.

Asustek and Acer were the only companies that still produced netbooks, while all the rest - Samsung, HP and Dell - switched to tablets. Asustek and Acer mainly focused on Southeast Asia and South America, but now these regions are targets for cheap Android smartphones and tablets.

One of the obvious reasons for the failure of netbooks is the iPad, introduced in January 2010. By mid-2010, other companies announced their Android tablets. Paradoxically, the iPad cost significantly more than a netbook and at the same time significantly lost to it in functionality - however, apparently it played the role of its better portability and longer battery life.

If in 2010 23 million tablets and 39 million netbooks were sold, then in 2011 tablets were already pulled ahead - 63 million tablets and 29 million netbooks were sold. According to preliminary forecasts, in 2012, 122 million tablets were sold. The netbooks of the compilers of the forecasts have already ceased to interest.