Netbooks boom leads to Sony, Harvey Norman partnership

Peter Dinham
Monday, 27 July 2009 13:44

IT Industry - Market

The booming netbook market has led Sony into the fray in partnership with leading retailer Harvey Norman. The partnership will see the two companies install kiosks at shopping centres where anyone looking to buy a smaller machine can play around with connected notebooks with the help of technology experts.

Sony Australia’s channel marketing manager for VAIO, Jun Yoon, told iTWire today that the use of  so-called secondary PCs is on the rise in Australia, and around the world, and he’s pushing the latest small, mini-notebook from Sony - the VAIO W series – as the “ideal companion for ultra-portable computing on the move.”

According to Yoon, mini notebooks such as the VAIO W let you quickly look up something online, whether you’re searching for a recipe in the kitchen or checking Facebook and YouTube, from the comfort of your lounge, and are “sturdy enough for the kids to use, or to slip in your bag for use on the road.”
 
While the VAIO W series comes loaded with Windows XP, like a lot of new, smaller portables, or netbooks, they’re underpowered with just one gigabyte, or less, of ram and would struggle to cope with Microsoft’s Windows 7 upcoming operating system.

Sony says its mini-notebook is not a replacement for a desktop machine or more powerful PC anyway, and it’s aimed squarely at the market for users wanting primarily to surf the Internet, visit social network sites like Facebook, and maybe for streaming videos from sites like YouTube.

In Sony’s announcement today, IDC Australia’s Felipe Rego predicted that the market for portable PCs would grow by 15 percent this year, compared to 2008, and he said small PCs were contributing substantially to the continued growth of the PC market, “even in this more difficult economic climate.”

CONTINUED page 2