Netbook market waiting for Pine Trail launch

The recent launch of Acer's much awaited netbook featuring dual-boot Android and Windows operating systems is coming amid a short-term slowdown in the netbook market. OEMs are taking a conservative approach to orders in the final quarter of 2009 due to the upcoming launch of Intel's Pine Trail platform which is expected at the turn of year.

According to Digitimes Research, netbook shipments from Taiwan notebook makers will dip 8% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2009, after seeing sequential growth of more than 20% in the previous two quarters. Analysts explained that while some netbook demand for the fourth quarter was pushed forward to the third in order to prepare for the launch of Windows 7 in October, many vendors are also looking to keep their inventory levels lean as the market prepares for a transition to Pine Trail devices in early 2010.