New figures from market analysis firm iSuppli seem to indicate a major shift took place in the PC industry during the third quarter of 2009: Taiwanese computer maker Acer has taken the number two position in worldwide PC sales, knocking once top-dog Dell down to the number three position. Acer did major business in the third quarter, seeing a 16.6 percent increase in its sales compared to the same quarter a year ago, and a whopping 31 percent increase compared to the second quarter of 2009. The net result? Acer accounted for 13.4 percent of the worldwide PC market, where Dell saw a 5.9 percent year-on-year decline to capture 12.9 percent of the worldwide market.
“Acer’s rise to the No.-2 rank in the global PC business reflects not only its strong performance in the notebook segment, but also the historic rise of Asia as a primary force in the computer industry,” said iSuppli principal analyst Matthew Wilkins, in a statement.
Hewlett-Packard retained its position as the world’s top computer maker, seeing a 7 percent year-on-year growth in shipments to account for 19.9 percent of the global computer market. Some 79.9 million computers were shipped during the third quarter of 2009, which is an overall 19 percent increase from the second quarter of 2009, and 1.1 percent increase from the third quarter of 2008.
iSuppli attributes Acer’s success to its consumer- and business-friendly prices, but also to the company’s successes marketing netbooks and leveraging its way into the U.S. and European markets—something that’s traditionally been difficult for Asian PC makers. But Acer isn’t the only computer maker who saw strong year-on-year growth in the third quarter: Acer was actually outdone by China’s Lenovo, which saw a 17.2 percent year-on-year gain in market share, to account for 8.7 percent of the market. Toshiba came in fifth place, with 9.7 percent year-on-year growth and a 5 percent global market share.
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