Acer Grabs Number Two Spot in Global PC Market

According to the latest numbers presented by a market report from research firm Gartner, Acer has managed to take the number two spot in the worldwide PC market, consequently surpassing Dell. Said report also states that worldwide PC shipments were totaled at 80.9 million in the third quarter of 2009, which basically means that there was a 0.5 percent increase over the Q3 results in 2008. The numbers clearly indicate that Acer is now behind HP, which continued to lead the market, after having recorded a year-on-year growth of 9%.

“These are good results especially given that PC shipments for the third quarter of 2009 are being compared to a very strong third quarter from 2008,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Sequentially, third quarter shipments grew 18 percent, which is higher than the historical seasonal growth from the second to third quarter.”

“The consumer market continued to lead unit shipment growth, driven by low priced mobile PCs,” Ms. Kitagawa added. “Ongoing price declines continue to be a major issue in the PC industry. PC vendor performance cannot be determined solely by unit market share gains alone as related revenues and margin performance are key to surviving in very competitive market.”

While globally Acer managed to steal the number two spot from Dell, in the US market Dell situated itself in the number one spot, while Acer maintained its third position, behind HP. Although Dell managed to stay atop in the US market, the PC vendor's shipments declined 8.9 percent, according to the data presented by Gartner.

“The consumer mobile PC market drove U.S. shipment growth in the third quarter of 2009, fueled by back to school sales,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “However, the results came with a revenue loss because of very steep declines in average selling prices (ASPs). Consumers were comfortable buying PCs, but they were relentlessly looking for bargains. Our preliminary research shows consumer mobile PC ASPs declined more than 20 percent compared to a year ago.”