Notebooks as Popular as TVs This Season

December 12, 2004

While some time-honored holiday traditions never change, the 2004 holiday season is increasingly going digital with notebooks amongst this season's brightest sellers.
According to consumer retail figures from The NPD Group, notebooks are becoming as popular as TVs. During "Black Friday," the name retailers give for the day after Thanksgiving, consumer notebook sales exceeded the sales of all types of TVs. Analyst firm Gartner expects both U.S. and worldwide fourth quarter consumer notebook shipments to be up almost 22 percent each over 2003.

The 2004 holiday season is increasingly going digital, with notebook PCs among this year's hottest sellers. According to recent holiday trend indexes, three out of four Americans plan to give a gift of technology this season.

Technology gifts are certainly top of mind with holiday gift givers. Seventy-six percent of Americans plan to give a tech gift these holidays, according to this year's Best Buy Holiday Trend Index.

Key factors gift givers are seeking in tech products are personalization, mobility and the ability to connect with other products as well as with friends and family. Fitting the bill, Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology-based notebooks are morphing into all-purpose entertainment devices you can take anywhere with entertainment features such as widescreens, TV tuners, personal video recording capabilities and remote controls.

Laptops are also gaining popularity thanks to the growing availability of wireless Internet access+ - or "Wi-Fi" - which allows Wi-Fi equipped laptops to connect to the Internet wirelessly at home, work and public hotspots. More than 43,000 hotspots worldwide are verified for interoperability with Intel Centrino mobile technology. Notebooks with Intel Centrino mobile technology have Wi-Fi capability built in, and deliver breakthrough mobile performance while enabling great battery life in lighter, easier-to-carry notebook PCs. Some models of Intel Centrino mobile technology-based notebooks are available for under $1,000.