Dell Philippines drops netbook business

Global information technology firm Dell Philippines is abandoning its netbook business to pursue other emerging technologies, possibly tablets, a ranking official revealed recently. During the press launch of its new set of notebooks, Dell Philippines country manager for consumer and small business Chris Papa said consumers are looking at newer technologies being released in the market today, which has prompted their shift in strategy. "We're shifting away from netbooks. In fact, in our case, we're not shipping netbooks anymore," Papa told GMA News Online. "We do see that technology is headed toward something else, so we're focusing on our mainstream products [instead]," he added. During the launch, Dell unveiled the new models from its notebook lines, but a new addition to its Inspiron Mini 10 series was conspicuously absent, confirming Papa's statements. Asked if the move to abandon netbooks was due to the surge in demand for tablets over the past years, Papa said: "We at Dell always ensure that we're always at the forefront of whatever technology is available." He hinted, however, that the company will soon be producing 10- and 7-inch tablets to follow its initial 5-inch Streak offering, which Papa said did well in the local market. "The first shipment of the Streak is now sold out. It was just a few hundred (units), since we're only after a market who prefers the 5-inch models," Papa said. Cannibalization Dell's situation is a concrete example of the ongoing "cannibalization" of netbooks and notebooks by tablet devices, according to recent data from Resolve Market Research as reported by technology news site CNet. Still a relatively young market, tablets have already cut a significant portion off the markets of other technology devices, such as e-readers, netbooks and laptops. According to the report, 42% of users will not buy a netbook or a laptop after owning a tablet device, up 10 percentage points from year-ago figures. E-readers are also highly susceptible to this cannibalization, the report noted, as 53% of users said they would prefer tablets for reading books and documents. The report also indicated that among business users who own a tablet device, at least 57 percent have fully or partially turned to their tablet for work-related activities. Of different activities that can be carried out using a computer, tablet users said they prefer to do simple tasks with their device, such as reading and receiving e-mail, scheduling appointments, giving presentations and organizing their calendar. In the next year, at least 70% of users said they expect to own at least two tablets, indicating the rise of the multi-tablet household. — TJD, GMA News