Intel Corp. said at a conference that the company underestimated popularity of netbooks on well-developed markets. The company also stressed that netbooks cannot replace notebooks due to performance and screen size constraints.

“We originally thought netbooks would be for emerging markets and younger kids, and there is some of that. It turns out the bulk of the netbooks sold today are Western Europe, North America, and for people who just want to grab and go with a notebook. We view the netbook as mostly incremental to our total available market,” said Stu Pann, vice president in the sales and marketing group at Intel at Raymond James IT Supply Chain Conference, reports Cnet News.com.

Intel Corp. has to make sure that the Atom processors that power virtually all the netbooks available on the market do not cannibalize sales of higher-performance chips for mobile computers. As a result, the company will hardly advertise netbooks and supporting platforms on developed markets where customers can afford something more expensive than an ultra-cheap ultra-mobile PCs. This is a reason why Intel stresses that netbooks are hardly a substitute for laptops.

“If you have ever used a netbook and used a 10” screen size – it’s fine for an hour. It is not something you are going to use day in and day out, said Mr. Pann.

It is interesting to note that Advanced Micro Devices, Intel’s arch-rival, recently said that it was not interested in developing special chips for netbooks. Meanwhile, Intel not only has plans to further develop netbook platforms for developing markets, but also proceed with netbook solutions for traditional markets.

Tags: Intel, Atom