According to AMI-Partners’ latest Q-Pulse Quarterly Tracking Study, Mexico small (1-99 employees) and medium (100-999 employees) businesses (SMBs) plan to buy close to half a million netbooks in the next 3 months. Only 2% of Mexico SMBs invested in netbooks in the last 3 months. If intentions are fulfilled, this could comprise a tremendous market opportunity for netbooks providers.
“Netbooks are beginning to make inroads in the Mexico SMB market. Portability and low-cost are key appealing attributes,” says Sau Lam, a Senior Analyst with AMI-Partners. Typically, weighing about 2.5 pounds and priced between $300-$500, netbooks are emerging as an attractive value proposition. The lightweight and small-form factors amount to an ideal solution for SMBs willing to trade-off high performance for greater mobility. More than half of Mexico MBs and 15% of SBs currently have mobile workforces.
“The challenging economic climate could become a catalyst for broader market acceptance of netbooks as many SMBs seek to trim costs but still meet basic computing requirements,” continues Ms. Lam. In fact, AMI’s study shows that more than half of Mexico SMBs view price as the most important criteria in determining an IT purchase.
The Mexico SMB market is wide open for netbook providers. Currently, HP is the market leader but Dell, Acer and Asus are strong contenders vying for a share. The success of these vendors will undoubtedly rely on their value proposition, marketing efforts, and support from their broad ecosystem of IT resellers. Main drivers that will push netbooks to the next level of growth include: faster and more robust computational power, integrated cellular connectivity, stronger channel relationships, and collaboration with mobile service providers to integrate more wireless functionality tailored to SMB needs.
