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Windows Small Notebook PC Growth – A Year in Review

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"Change is the only constant."  We've all heard the phrase, and we all know what it means.  It's true for most of our personal lives - and certainly true at Microsoft - and now, it's becoming more and more true for consumers looking to buy PCs.

For example, 20 years ago, if you wanted to buy a PC, you went to a specialty electronics retailer.  Ten years ago, you went to that same retailer, or you ordered a machine on the internet.  Today, you can hit a retail store; browse, build and buy a computer online; or get them in a new place... your local wireless telecommucations service provider.

Wireless service providers all over the world are making PCs, particularly mobile PCs, part of their core offering, and getting them to consumers at great prices with bundled mobile broadband data service plans.

  • In the U.S., we're seeing Verizon  and AT&T offer $199 netbooks for sale, with the purchase of a two-year mobile broadband contract. Best Buy and Sprint have teamed up to offer 99-cent netbooks with a 2-year broadband contract. Rural carriers Cincinatti Wireless from Ohio and Cellular South in Mississippi are all offering subscriptions with Windows-based small notebook PCs.
  • Worldwide, Vodafone (UK) is offering a free Dell Mini 9 with Windows with a two-year contract  and SFR (France) Is offering multiple Windows-only mobile PCs when customers sign up for a broadband contract. In Taiwan, netbook sales through carriers accounted for 50% of total retail sales in August 2009.

The common thread between these offers is that these leading wireless providers are mostly offering Windows based small notebook PCs -- also known as netbooks!  That could be the reason that the worldwide market share of Windows in the netbook category is up to an amazing 93.3%, which is nearly 10x growth over a year ago.

I see three key drivers to this impressive growth:

  • It's what customers want. In April, Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc explained why customers want Windows on netbook PCs, and also why major retailers like PC World in UK and TechData in the US dropped Linux netbooks in favor of Windows - so I won't go into heavy detail here - but suffice it to say that customers are demanding Windows ease of use, online security, and massive hardware and software compatibility for their PC experience.
  • Anytime, anywhere 3G wireless broadband.   Robbie Bach made the prediction at CTIA in April that Windows 7 would do for 3G what Windows XP did for Wi-Fi; namely, that it will make it mainstream for the first time, and that Windows 7 and 3G based services have the potential to also redefine what people come to expect from their PCs both large and small while on the go.  By offering inexpensive small notebook PCs with bundled wireless broadband plans, wireless service providers are leading this charge.
  • You can get one no matter where you live.  Not everyone lives near a big-box retailer, but nearly everyone is within reasonable driving distance to a wireless operator retail store.  That's a huge boon to making technology more accessible to everyone, and we've found that the ability to simply get your hands on technology is a key driver towards adoption.

It's pretty cool to see not only how the small notebook PC category has evolved, but also how the delivery channel for these little machines is changing the way millions of people access technology.  It's even cooler to see how Windows XP and Windows Vista - and soon, Windows 7 - are helping customers get even more out of them.