The market share registered by notebook sales during the first quarter of this year is meant to impress even the most optimistic analysts, even though everybody is aware of the fact that notebooks lead by far in PC sales these days. The year-over-year growth registered by all major notebook manufacturers, except for Sony, is set in the two digits area. We have already showed how Dell went back to the No. 2 position and we should add Apple, which managed to climb up to No. 7.

According to Displaysearch, the first quarter of this year registered total notebook sales of 31.1 million units, which translates into a 35% growth comparing to the first quarter of 2007. More than 85% of the market share goes for the world's nine largest vendors.

The No. 1 position in the top is still held by Hewlett-Packard, which sold 6.46 million notebooks and registered a market share of 20.8% and a 40% annual growth. Dell managed to return to the second position with a 15.1% market share and a 45% year-over-year growth, while Acer comes on the third place with a 14.6% share and a 33% growth.

Surprisingly, Apple went up to the 7th position, as it registered 1.4 million units sold and a 61% growth. The 8th place is reserved to the EeePC manufacturer ASUS, which managed to register an astonishing shipment growth of 67% to 1.3 million units, getting on the top list right behind Apple. Lenovo also registered a good quarter in sales this year, as it managed to get to the No. 5 place on the list, with 58% of growth.

Sony is placed No. 9, going through a rather bad quarter, registering only 3% of growth. There are other companies that have registered growth bellow the average of the industry, including Toshiba, ranked 4th with 21% of growth, and Fujitsu-Siemens, placed 6th with 26%. Even so, Fujitsu-Siemens has managed to surpass Sony together with Apple and ASUS.