Digitimes has revealed that the fortunes of tier two notebook vendors are falling somewhat. In simple terms tier two, or second tier, notebook vendors are those vendors who are below the top ten in terms of sales. Digitimes claims that because of such limited successes among second tier vendors a lot of them have withdrawn from the market to product other things – like tablets for example. Apparently Intel has tried to help many through tough times but it simply hasn’t been enough:
“Intel has always actively nurtured second-tier notebook vendors. Although Intel has tried to help them pass the crisis, first-tier vendors’ fierce price competition and aggressive entry in emerging markets are forcing second-tier vendors to seek new business opportunities.”
The situation isn’t projected to get any better either as the PC market continues to drop every year as tablets become more popular. In 2000 second tier vendors made up 30% of the market, in 2005 that had fallen to less than 20% and this year that figure is projected to fall to only 10%. What this means is that as the overall market contracts in size only the big vendors can afford to survive – the likes of Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Toshiba and so on.
Image courtesy of Clevo
