Despite Dell's efforts in consolidating their sales with campaigns aimed at specific consumer sectors (such as the Dell XPS One or XPS M1730 models), the company continues to lose important market share to competitors. Not even the aggressive moves into retail channels around the world could stop them from the third-quarter sales free-fall. iSuppi has revealed that during the last quarter, Hewlett-Packard has taken advantage of an increased expansion over the global PC market, while Dell encountered the Acer challenge in the notebook market segment.

"Hewlett-Packard continues to gain momentum in the PC market due to its strong channel presence and its moves to capitalize on the strength of the notebook segment", said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for iSuppli. "Despite a renewed focus on its PC business, and the return of Michael Dell to the company's helm, Dell's channel business is taking time to ramp up and have an impact on company sales", he continued.

The market analysis firm iSuppli states that HP sold just over 13 million PCs worldwide in the last three months and claimed 19.2 percent of the market, while the year-to-year sales reports show an evolution of 32.7 percent. Dell, the ex-number two in the top, could only grow 1.5 percent in year-to-year sales, while Lenovo and Acer had to face tight competition for the third and fourth place.

"Acer's ascension in market share is due to its strong performance in the notebook business, and its robust sales in the Asia/Pacific and European regions", states Wilkins. "Acer is executing well in the channel and offering aggressive pricing."

Hewlett-Packard's success in the market was possible due to the company's strong presence in the retail channel, combined with an intense marketing program for their notebook computer business. Speaking of notebooks, the year's phenomenon is Acer, which has grown more than 68 percent during one year, thanks to their aggressive sales program in the Asia-Pacific region. Moreover, the company has recently taken over the U.S. computer maker Gateway business, which gives Acer new opportunities on the North American Market.