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There has been much talk over the last couple months about Netbooks riding into the PC market in these difficult economic times and either saving or slaying the industry. It appears however that this knight in shining armor was not as shiny as the vendors anticipated.

Digitimes is reporting that the two Netbook sales leaders, Asus and Acer, both failed to meet their shipment guidance for the year. In 2008 Asus shipped 4.9 million Eees as opposed to the expected 5 million plus while Acer shipped between 4.5 and 4.8 million Aspire Ones rather the 5 million they had projected (and used to trumpet themselves the new market kings).

Of course, such minor slippages in shipments are to be expected during a global recession. The other details that Digitimes is offering are far more disturbing and could have a powerful impact on 2009 sales. Apparently of the 4.9 million Eees shipped, only 4.5 million were actually sold in 2008. That leaves 400,000 Eees sitting in retailers warehouses clogging up the supply chain and cutting into new shipments and sales in 2009. Acer is even worst shape, with only 4 million sold out of 4.5-4.8 million shipped. One fifth of last years shipments still sitting gathering dust in January does not bode well for first quarter sales.

Little wonder then that according to Digitimes again, Asus is taking steps to cut back on customer confusion and brand bloat by consolidating the Eee series down to four lines (rather then the current gajillion).

Zealot (446 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).