Small portable notebooks are hot say IDC but retailers claim they are not making "good" money from the devices. Overnight IDC has confirmed that ultra small, ultra cheap laptops are outpacing the rest of the PC industry and that demand for the popular device is unlikely to decline in 2009.

In Q4 2008, 3.6 million units were sold which represents 20 percent of total laptop sales and 30 percent of consumer laptops sold during that period. ICC say that the device which was pioneered by ASUS is making up nearly two third of the business laptop market in terms of units sold.

IDC claim that the netbooks or as some people refer to them mini notebooks have been one of the most sought-after items in Christmas season last year and represented more than four fifths of the sales volumes however buyers at leading retail chains such as OfficeWorks, JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman have all said that the "margins are wafer thin".

There are currently more than 50 vendors in this segment offering a bewildering array of netbooks design although most of them share the same basic configuration (Windows XP, Atom base unit, 10.2-inch, 1GB Ram).

In Europe Acer has pipped Asus as the leading mini-notebook vendor with nearly 1.1 million units shipped however in Australia Acer is struggling in the notebook market up against brands like Dell, ASUS, HP, Toshiba and Lenovo.
IDC said  that the trend is unlikely to decrease in 2009 with touchscreen models appearing later this year with sales fuelled by the probable release of Windows 7; furthermore, AMD and ARM are expected to join the bandwagon, adding even more competition to the market