Posted 10/29/09 at 08:25:41 PM by Ryan Whitwam

PC vender Acer is on quite the roll as of late. They’ve finally become number two in worldwide notebook sales, beating out Dell. Now they expect to be able to ship 40 million notebooks in 2010, and take the number one spot from market leader HP.

Earlier this year Acer was predicting only 33 to 37 million units shipped, but better than expected performance in the second half of the year caused them to raise expectations. One of Acer’s major problems is the ongoing shortage of hardware, including optical drives, LCD panels, hard drives, and graphics chips. Acer Chairman, JT Wang, indicated that even with possible shortages the company would likely reach its goal.

Acer has become a major player in the last few years. Their notebook shipments have more than doubled, mostly due to the success of netbooks marketed heavily to consumers. They plan to continue on this path into next year.

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Posted 09/14/09 at 09:17:28 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Sales of PCs were up in the second quarter of 2009, according to market analytics firm, iSupply. Global shipments were up 1% over the first quarter to 67.2 million units. This is the first increase in six months. It’s not all roses though; sales were still down 4.3% from Q2 of last year. However, going into the end of the year, sales are expected to stay strong in part due to the October release of Windows 7. The likely advertising blitz will get PCs in many mainstream media outlets.

In this past quarter, HP managed to hold the top sales spot for the twelfth quarter in a row. HP’s sales were up 2% over last quarter, leaving it with a 20% market share. "HP is not only maintaining its leadership position but is also gaining market share due to its robust notebook business, which has outgrown the overall notebook segment for the past two quarters," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for iSuppli. Dell and Acer continued to fight it out for the number two spot.

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Posted 07/19/08 at 01:33:30 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Stamford-based IT research firm Gartner has revealed the worldwide PC industry’s sales figures for the second quarter. Overall, the global PC industry registered a growth of 16% as a total of 71.9 million units were shipped during the quarter. More and more people are turning to notebooks, as opposed to desktops, as notebook prices continue to plummet. However, the US PC industry couldn’t keep up with the highly promising growth rate seen globally and managed a much subdued rate of 4.2% - total shipments stood at 16.5 million units.

If its Q2 performance is anything to go by, HP is not moving an inch from its position as the top PC maker in the world. HP’s sales grew at a faster rate than even the global average. But Dell is not too keen on staying at No.2 either. It raised its market share to 15.6% and even outshone HP’s year-over-year growth rate. These days one can’t resist mentioning netbooks but they really didn’t leave much of a mark in the US; still early days, though.

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