Figures released by a market research firm, DisplaySearch, have revealed that on a global level, while revenues from netbooks sky-rocketed, sales of every other category of personal computers declined. The data was shared by the firm on Tuesday.

While mini-laptops pulled in revenue of $11.4 Billion, which is a 72% hike compared to the figure of $6.7 Billion recorded for 2008, sales of all other portable PCs slipped by 12% to $109.4 Billion, from last year's revenue figure of $117.1 Billion.

"Our long-term outlook is that the mini-note share of the notebook PC market has stabilized, and will remain at approximately 20% through 2011 before starting to erode. While mini-notes offer lower ASPs (average sales prices) and are thinner and lighter than notebook PCs, the performance of larger notebook PCs continues to improve while prices continue to steadily decline, increasing the performance gap while narrowing the price gap", said John F. Jacobs, Director of Notebook Market Research for DisplaySearch.

As per categories, year-on-year sales of ultra-portables, which are computers with displays between 11-13 inches, declined by 23% to $6.9 Billion, while those of portables, laptops with displays of 13-16 inches, slipped by 13% to $80.3 Billion. Also, sales of desktop replacements fell by 12% to $10.8 Billion.

The report submitted by the research company also seems to suggest that low rates make devices more attractive not only to customers, but to wireless service providers as well, who look to offer them as a part of their data plans.