Acer Passes Apple & Dell

Well, there it is. A non-American company has managed to become the second-largest computer seller for the first time in history.
In a fresh research report issued on Wednesday, IDC confirmed that Acer, based in Taiwan, overtook Dell, of Round Rock, Texas, as the Number 2 PC maker during the third quarter. The two companies had been neck-and-neck for the last couple of quarters, with Acer benefiting from the increasing demand for netbooks and Dell suffering from a lack of business computer sales. Acer has now set its sights on Hewlett-Packard, the clear PC market leader out of Palo Alto, Calif. According to IDC, H.P. took 20.2 percent of the worldwide PC market in the third quarter, an increase from 18.9 percent in the same period last year. Acer’s market share shot up to 14 percent from 11.4 percent, while Dell’s market share dropped to 12.7 percent from 14.2 percent. Lenovo, based in China, and Toshiba of Japan rounded out the top five sellers, with 8.9 percent and 5.2 percent of the market, respectively. All of the PC companies actually saw their sales rise during the quarter, except for Dell. Sales at Dell dropped 8.4 percent during the quarter, while Acer’s sales rose 25.6 percent and H.P.’s 9.3 percent. In the United States., H.P. was ahead of Dell as the largest computer seller, taking 25.5 percent of the market to Dell’s 25 percent stake. Acer, with an 11.1 percent market share, moved past Apple, which had 9.4.
Acer’s sales grew an astonishing 48.3 percent during the quarter, while Dell’s dropped 13.4 percent and H.P.’s rose 3.2 percent. “The competitive landscape, the transition to portables, new and low-power designs, growth in retail and consumer segments and the impact of falling prices are all reflected in the gains by H.P. and Acer, as well as overall market growth,” said Loren Loverde, a program director at IDC. Overall, PC sales rose 2.3 percent year-on-year to 78.1 million units. Sales had dropped the previous two quarters.