Mobile PC shipments see strong Q1 growth

Consumers generated the biggest sales of mobile PCs

Sales of mobile PCs soared by more than 43 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, according to the latest figures from Gartner.

The analyst firm said that consumers generated the biggest sales, but that the enterprise market will see higher growth as companies start to refresh in-house systems.

However, Gartner said that customers are becoming increasingly aware of the limitations of mobile PCs, which could prove to be their downfall.

"Mini-notebook PCs were a big part of the bump in mobile PC shipments in the first quarter of 2010, with shipments growing 71 per cent over the same period last year," said Mikako Kitagawa, a principal analyst at Gartner.

"However, mini-notebooks' share slowed in some regions as consumers began to understand their limitations, especially in the face of aggressive price cuts of regular notebooks."

HP shipped the most units during the quarter, grabbing almost 20 per cent of the mobile PC market, but logged growth at a rate below industry averages, as did Dell.

Asus and Acer saw the most growth, with increases of 113 per cent and 48.4 per cent respectively, mainly at the low end of the consumer market.