This IDC study (which is a translation of the Japanese report IDC #J9140101) — besides analyzing the 2008 PC market trends involving portable PC screen sizes and hard disks such as solid state drive (SSD), Blu-ray Disc (BD), and TV tuners — firms up the current product trends in the Japan PC market and presents forecast of the future market trends. Data utilized in this study are annual data, actual values until 2007, and forecast values after 2008; quarterly data are actual values until 3Q08 (July–September); and forecast values after 4Q08 (October –December). All values are updated up to December 2008.
"The new mininotebook PC market began to take shape in 2008. The key to the growth of the mininotebook PC market lies in understanding users' needs and devising a product plan after a careful selection of the functions. For the future, PC vendors should define the features of the different series through in-depth understanding of the functions and performance of the different sub–form factors," analyzes Hirotoshi Asano, senior market analyst, PCs, IDC Japan.