Ultraportable Laptops Are More Popular Than Ever

This month's release of the Consumer Behavior Report from Pricegrabber.com shows that consumers are making some interesting choices when purchasing new laptops. The Consumer Behavior Report is based on responses from roughly 2,000 consumers after shopping for products via Pricegrabber.com. The report is designed to give merchants, media and industry analysts insight into shopping trends, pricing and market share. Here are some figures that jump out from the report:

• 58 percent of respondents who own a laptop have a "portable-style laptop" (a laptop with a screen less than 15 inches and weighs less than six pounds).
• 88 percent of respondents say they'll consider a portable-style laptop when purchasing a new laptop. (A change from previous shopping trends when consumers were shopping for laptops with larger screens.)
• The Sony VAIO brand has the highest year-over-year traffic among the most popular portable-style laptops on the market, between January 2007 and January 2008.
• The most popular laptop (among all categories and sizes) on Pricegrabber.com between 1/1/08 and 2/21/08 was the Asus Eee PC 4G Surf.

What is perhaps equally interesting is that the report suggests consumers are split between low-end and mid-range priced laptops. Among the 20 most popular laptops on PriceGrabber.com, 45 percent are low-end laptops (less than $1,000), with an average price point of $576. Another 45 percent of the top 20 list are mid-priced laptops ($1,000-$2,000), with an average price point of $1,424. Only 10 percent of the top 20 laptops fall within the high-end price range (more than $2,000), with an average price point of $2,274.

What Are You Looking For?

When it comes to the issues that matter most to consumers when shopping for a new laptop, 46 percent of respondents said that "performance" was the most important feature when chosing a portable laptop ... followed by "price" at 17 percent and "battery life" at 15 percent.

In short, this report indicates that consumers are looking for more portable notebook solutions and that fewer consumers are willing to spend a large sum of money on a laptop despite the desire for high performance. These figures really shouldn't come as much of a surprise for industry professionals who have been paying attention to sales numbers over the last year.

Big Surprises Come In Small Sizes

If anything in the report comes as a surprise, it's that the Eee PC 4G Surf, one of the smallest and cheapest laptops, is currently more popular among online shoppers than laptops from HP, Dell, Apple, or any other manufacturer. Considering the Asus Eee PC has only been on the market since October of 2007, this is quite impressive.

No wonder we're seeing an increasing number of laptop makers releasing similar low-priced ultraportable laptops. If consumer behavior continues like this, we can expect to see even more budget portable notebooks in 2008.

Is this a good thing? We suspect only time will tell ... but let us know what you think in our discussion forums.

 

As a user who recently purchased my own ultraportable for the first time, I can certainly say I'm not surprised to see the "average" user lean more towards this form factor. I'll probably never go back to anything larger now!

 

Owning an Asus EEE has made me wonder why I ever used anything bigger.

 

I'm waiting for the folding display in order to give the right balance between portability and screen real estate. There's also the consideration of minimum keyboard size for all-day use. So we may still end up having two notebooks: a larger one for all-day use and a ultra-portable for limited use when on the move.

John

 

I think a lot of people are finding what I found when I purchased my Eee. I don't need my notebook to be a beast of a machine. It needs to be able to handle simple tasks, quickly, and in a small package. The beauty of the Eee is that it does this at a third of the price of its competitors, and it does it better than a lot of them.

Something that is overlooked here is that Asus got the size to power ratio right. Previous subnotebooks I've owned used components that were so low powered, that it made the devices useless. With the Eee, Asus has given us a small machine with older, but quick, components. It's a joy to use.

 

Now if the game developers would stop focusing effort on selling nvidias top priced video cards and develop compelling games that would run on Linux with basic video card support. I don't mean getting old games to work either, I mean develop new stuff.

 

I'm with John here.

I currently own a 15" which is a pain to lugg around, but it usually stays on my desk anyways unless i'm traveling from country to country. And I definitely am considering purchasing a smaller cheaper notebook to bring around with me to classes I will be teaching in.

Its great that the Eee is showing such strong hold on the market in such a short amount of time. Many of the other manufacturers have realized this already, and we will get some good competition by summer if all of them stay on track. The problem is, I have a feeling lots of them are going to end up being a little larger, and a little more expensive.

 

I'm all for portability, but after playing around with a EEE over the weekend, I have no desire at all to part with my m1210, its not that much bigger in terms of size, but has loads more power and capeabilities. I know a bunch of folks that snatched one up as their first notebook, and in general most loved it for about a month, till the novelty wore off and its limiations came to light, and they went and bought a full stregth notebook.

 

My next laptop is going to be either a EEE, X61, or M1330. I'm over the phase of wanting a big and powerful laptop.

The ideal solution for me will be to have a desktop at home and a ultraportable laptop for on the go. I'll use FolderShare to access documents on the desktop when on the go and to keep things in sync.

 

The HP 2133 seems to be the most interesting and best looking of the new crop of UMPC offerings.

• Scratch resistant 8.9-inch 1366 x 766 (WXGA) display
  ExpressCard/54 slot
  Wireless LAN
  nearly full-sized QWERTY (95% of full),
  integrated webcam,
  and optional SSD
  2.5-pound anodized aluminum case
  Vista or Linux

But $630 is a bit pricey. But it seems to be of better quality and more powerful than an Eee pc.

 

ultraportables have gotten robust enough that they can do more and media like SD is large enough it can handle anything a DVD can.

I love my d420. Its powerful enough to do anything day to day but at just over 3lbs and the size of a notebook it does a lot more than a personal organizer.

 

When was it announced the HP was $630?

 

That's funny. After a month of using my Eee, I unloaded my m1210. I hadn't touched it since the arrival of my Eee, and I don't regret getting rid of it.

I loved that machine. It was probably the nicest I've ever had.

For what you get, it's a small machine. To say it's not much larger than the Eee is a joke, though. The m1210 is a boat anchor compared to the Eee.

 

I like that HP... the 95% QWERTY and relatively high res screen are big selling points. When is it actually coming out?

 

We're really looking forward to this device and think it could really change the market to bring more buyers on board.

 

I have to disagree from a gaming standpoint, I hate trying to mix a small display with a good game. Take the 13.3" LG P300 with the 8600GS for example, it had all the power anyone could need at that form factor but it felt cramped and I would be getting charged a premium because of its size. With a 15.4" I realize I don't mind carrying around six pounds, I get a bigger screen, better thermals, a bigger battery, and a better price/performance ratio.

Although a Console and an Asus EEE PC or a gaming desktop and an Asus EEE PC seems like a good idea its still secondary to having everything in one package. 15.4" all the way!

 

Most newer laptops have more computing power than most users need.

This is where the Ultraportable has its strenght, realising that most people just needs a portable to check emails, read some stuff on the web, do some office documents. Being small and cheap is where Asus has exploited the market.

I only find my EEE lacking only when I VNC to remote support due to its screen size. Otherwise, for heavier duty work, I have my M1330 and D630 which is now, mostly desk bound.

 

its normal all the students wants a light laptop

 

I actually went the other way, from an ultraportable Thinkpad X Series to a boat anchor 6.5lbs Acer. The Thinkpad was great in college, and impressed my to-be girlfriend, and she struck up a conversation with me about my tiny laptop. We're still together.

The Acer cost me peanuts last year, less than an Eee and its powerful enough to replace a desktop. The Thinkpad was very portable but dog slow.

However, today's laptops are fast enough and cheap enough that you can get the slowest one and it will still run XP and most applications smoothly.

I'm now looking at either the new Eee or HP, or upping my budget to a new Thinkpad X Series to replace my 15.4" laptop because I now value portability more than size.

But still, sometimes I think about how much portability I would really be gaining by moving to a 12" screen.

 

Well I've migrated from 15" to 14" and finally to 12"... Which is the place to be IMO. You eventually get used to having a smaller screen and you end up having your laptop with you anytime, anywhere.
Having said that I wouldn't consider an ultraportable if i didn't already had a desktop computer to do my "serious" work (CAD and photoshop - which is useless on any laptop anyway)

 

Rumored along with the leak.

 

I have every plan on getting one. Not right away because I hate to be an early adopter of anything. Like to see the intel on it... like a review of it here first.

But it fits that gap I've been experiencing. PDA ----->(GAP)-----> Desktop replacement notebook.

Only thing that worries me is that appears that the battery is not user replaceable. For a DIYer such as myself, that might not be an issue post warranty. I replaced the battery on a Palm, a RIO, and an Ipod.