Taiwanese PC company Acer has knocked Dell off its number two spot for the first time in a quarter.
According to market research firm iSuppli, Acer is number two worldwide, with PC shipments up to 16.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009, compared to the same quarter last year.
That gives Acer a market share of 13.4 percent – in the same quarter last year it held 11.6 percent.
Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst at iSuppli, said: “Acer’s rise to the number two rank in the global PC business reflects not only its strong performance in the notebook segment, but also the historic rise of Asia as a primary force in the computer industry.
Acer’s founder, Stan Shih, predicted at a Computex in 1990 that it would be in the top three PC companies by the millennium. It’s taken a little longer for Acer to hit that position.
This table, courtesy of iSuppli, shows the top five rankings of PC manufacturers by shipments, in thousands of units.
| Rank | Company | Q3 2009 | Q3 2008 | YoY Growth | Share Q309 |
| 1 | HP | 15,898 | 14,853 | 7% | 19.9% |
| 2 | Acer | 10,735 | 9,203 | 16.6% | 13.4% |
| 3 | Dell | 10,335 | 10,985 | -5.9% | 12.9% |
| 4 | Lenovo | 6,940 | 5,920 | 17.2% | 8.7% |
| 5 | Toshiba | 4,018 | 3,664 | 9.7% | 5% |
| Others | 31,957 | 34,425 | -7.2% | 40% | |
| Total Shipments |
79,883 | 79,050 | 1.1% | 100% | |
Unit shipments have risen on a year on year basis for the first time since Q4 2009, said iSuppli – worldwide shipments amounted to 79.9 million units.
Wilkins said the sequential and year on year shipment figures show that the PC industry has emerged from the downturn.
