For year’s Dell was the top dog in worldwide PC sales, with its direct-to-customers approach and discounted pricing earning it loyalty and a heck of a lot of sales. But in late 2006 Hewlett-Packard took over as the top PC maker worldwide, and last year unseated Dell from it’s top position in the U.S. computer market. Now, market research firm iSuppli says Dell is on the verge of being taken down another peg, this time by Taiwan’s Acer. According to iSuppli, Acer managed to grow its worldwide market share by 29 percent during 2009, shipping a total of 38.5 million PCs. That performance was the strongest growth among the top five PC makers worldwide, and was enough to put it right on Dell’s heels: Dell saw sales drop 9.9 percent during 2009, with shipments falling to 38.96 million units.
“Acer’s 2009 success was driven by the notebook PC market,” said iSuppli principal analyst Matthew Wilkins, in a statement. “Notebooks accounted for nearly 80 percent of Acer’s shipments in 2009. This allowed the company to capitalize on the fast-growing mobile-computing segment while limiting its exposure to the moribund desktop segment.”
Aside from Dell, all the top five PC makers saw growth during 2009: HP was up by 7.4 over 2008, number four Lenovo grew by 14.3 percent, and Toshiba grew shipments by 13.7 percent. Market leader Hp accounted for 19.7 percent of the worldwide PC market in 2009, with Dell capturing 12.9 percent, Acer 12.7 percent, Lenovo 8.2 percent, and Toshiba 5.1 percent. Overall, despite difficult economic conditions, the PC market grew slightly in 2009, with a total of 302.3 million units shipped compared to 299.2 million units in 2008.
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