Laptop Market :

Market Segments, Leaders, Trends and Future

2008

By:

VIKAS PANWAR

Consumer Segments:

Laptop market in the present scenario can be largely divided into three categories. Each category has its own requirement respective of the task/work for which the laptop is being used. The purpose of usage might overlap depending upon the situation and a change in role for individuals. The three categories are:

1) Professional

2) Personal

3) Educational

Consumer Segments:

A further elaboration on these categories:

1) Professional: Professionals/consumers working in corporate, firms and other small business organizations.

This category includes managers, engineers, accountants, designers etc. working in sectors like software, hardware, banking, insurance etc. Generally this type of user is adept to computing and can handle complex situations while operating a laptop.

2) Personal: Consumers whose usage of laptop doesn't qualify as professional. They use laptop to accomplish their personal day to day activities.

This includes housewives, elderly people or professionals who use laptop at home or during leisure. This type of user is generally not adept with computing and is not tech savvy.

3) Educational: Includes consumers/students who use laptop for educational purpose.

This includes consumers who study in a primary/secondary school, college, university and use a laptop mainly for learning and leisure activities. This type of consumer can be further divided into beginners (minors) who are not adept to computing and experts (adults) who use computing in their everyday activity and are tech savvy.

Consumer Segments:

Each of these three categories has a variety of user profiles which overlaps with each other depending upon a change in role.

For e.g. A single young professional might require a high configuration laptop when in office but when at home, he/she would require a laptop with basic configuration. In office, the user would be doing high processing tasks (like programming) on a laptop which would require high CPU speed, a larger RAM and a faster Memory Drive. Whereas, at home, he/she would probably just check his/her emails, watch movies or listen to music which would require a laptop with very basic configuration.

Since various attributes in a laptop configuration like its RAM, Memory, Processing Speed etc. are the most important factor in deciding its market price, it becomes essential that individual user segment must be taken into account while designing or manufacturing it as the configuration changes for each segment.

To elaborate further regarding what each user segment might represent, three brief user personas are provided on the following pages:

Consumer Segments:

Professional Consumer:

Brief User Persona

User : Alex Lee, software engineer

Alex is a software programmer in Huawei Technologies. He is 28 years old and has a BS degree in Computer Science. After school, he worked for a couple of years in a dot com doing some web works and DB on Unix Systems, but the company failed. He decided to do more in science and heard about an opening in Huawei.

He is good at making software work and developing specialized tools to try things out. He prefers working with latest computing technology and is keen on trying out new ideas. Most of what he does runs on a command-line or through web. He also qualifies as a local web expert.

Apart from work, he is interested in dating women, watching movies and playing outdoor games. Which makes him a nice outgoing person. When at home, he usually prefers to stay away from his office work and relaxes by listening music and doing exercise……………………………

Consumer Segments:

Personal Consumer:

Brief User Persona

User : Linda Xu, House Wife

Linda is a 35 year old married women. She has a 5 year old girl. She normally stays at home and spends her time watching TV, shopping occasionally, surfing internet, checking emails etc. She is a wonderful cook and sometimes posts her recipes on her internet blog.

She did her graduation in arts and literature. She is keen on downloading and buying new e-books about cooking. Apart from being a good wife, she is also a good mother. She often reads stories and poems to her daughter from internet.

Her husband and herself plan to build their own website for Chinese cooking recipes in English and Mandarin language………………………..

Consumer Segments:

Educational Consumer:

Brief User Persona

User : Travis Ford, Graduate Student

Travis is a 23 year old boy. He is doing his MS in Information Systems from UC Berkley. He did his BS in Communication Design from University of Washington. He is keenly interested n information management systems and systems design. After finishing his MS, he wants to take up a job in a software firm as a Systems Designer.

His everyday activity includes attending classes from morning till noon, doing thesis work with his guide after noon till evening and then returning to his dorm around 6 – 7 pm. He is planning to develop a software tool for systems design on his own. He is tech savvy and likes to read about new tech gadgets including latest mobile phones, laptops, cameras etc. He owns a latest available laptop………………………………………………………………

Top Leaders/Major Players

HP : Main markets include Europe, US Major Sub Brand: Compaq Presario, Pavilion Series

Great Innovative Design, Sleek looking, High End

Top Leaders/Major Players

TOSHIBA : Main markets include Asia Pacific, South Asia Major Sub Brand: Satellite Series

Plain Design, Sleek, User friendly and good brand name

Top Leaders/Major Players

DELL : Main markets include US, Europe, Asia Pacific, South Asia Major Sub Brand: Latitude, Precision, Inspiron Series

Bulky Design, Unimpressive in Aesthetics, good brand name

Top Leaders/Major Players

LENOVO : Main markets include Asia Pacific, South Asia Major Sub Brand: ThinkPad, 3000 Series

Some Designs are bulky, some look sleek, Unimpressive in Aesthetics, overall good brand name

Top Leaders/Major Players

ACER : Main markets include Asia Pacific, South Asia Major Sub Brand: Aspire Series

Excellent new designs, Curvy forms, overall acceptable as a brand

Notable Entries:

SONY : Main markets include Asia Pacific, South Asia, US, Europe Major Sub Brand: VAIO Series

Impressive Slim designs, Plain Flat forms, overall very reputed as a brand

Notable Entries:

SAMSUNG : Main markets include Asia Pacific, South Asia, US, Europe Major Sub Brand: P.Q.R.X Series

Excellent new designs, Curvy forms, overall very reputed as a brand

Trends:

Design trends in laptop market varies from organic abstract forms to flat and crispy forms.

The race to shrink a laptop has resulted in screen size as small as 6-7 inch. As a result, keyboards have shrunk to 60-75% as compared to that of 15 inch laptop. This shrinking in size has led to the keypad usability issues.

There has been a recent trend shift in the laptop market.

Earlier, the market was mostly driven by the speed at which a manufacturer can incorporate latest technology in their laptops. Nowadays, most of the companies are targeting specific users segments to increase their sales.

As a result it could be seen that companies like HP, Toshiba, Apple, Asus etc. have introduced Ultra-portable Notebooks. A few such companies’ products are included in the following slides:

Trends:

Acer: Aspire One

Lenovo: Ideapad

Trends:

Dell: D420

VIA: Nanobook

Trends:

OLPC: XO

ASUS: Eee PC

Trends:

HCL: Mileap

Everex: Cloudbook

Trends:

Apple: Macbook

Future:

In present day laptop market, increasing sales and creating brand names is not just about shrinking size/thickness or stuffing latest technology in the frames, but it is about learning and identifying new consumer segments.

A great product would be measured on the user friendliness and the refreshing experience.

In future, we may see laptops with full touch screen interface, reduced size and thickness. Increase in usability, transportability and maintainability.

Future:

In a very near future, a laptop might look something like this:

Thanks