Acer Surpasses Dell in Laptop Shipments

News
By Marcus Yam
published

Acer is number two!

In terms of the PC industry, HP is the juggernaut. With the combination of Compaq, no other company ships more laptops than Hewlett-Packard.

In the first quarter of 2009, HP continued its dominance of the notebook PC category, growing share to 24.1 percent, with more than 7.3 million shipped, according to numbers from DisplaySearch.

There was a change in second place though. Dell previously was the second largest maker of notebook computers, but just in the past quarter Acer moved ahead. For the notebook PC industry as a whole, Acer holds 18.8 percent of the market.

Acer’s jump to second place behind HP is likely attributed to the growth of the netbook segment. Netbooks, which made up just a few percent of laptop shipments a year ago now has a one-fifth share. Acer leads the netbook market share with 30.5 percent.

Acer had the greatest percentage of their total shipments accounted for by netbooks by far with 31.6 percent. Other manufacturers HP, Dell, Toshiba and Lenovoall shipped less than 10 percent of their volume as netbooks.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • I wasn't that fond of the Acer laptop. It was probably the only laptop promoted in media stores, but it had low disk capacity (space and speed), and a low battery life.
    Give me an EeePc901 over this one any time!
    Reply
  • bustapr
    Well this is a dumb article. Who wants to know who's second place in laptop shipments in the first quarter of the year?
    Reply
  • tenor77
    bustaprWell this is a dumb article. Who wants to know who's second place in laptop shipments in the first quarter of the year?
    Well on a slow newsday....

    I think it's interesting to note trends, even in the 1st quarter. Acer's found success in it's netbooks. Even though we know they're worthless for serious applications, it shows what most people are interested in for their PC- internet browsing.

    And ProDigit80 you should know most consumers are interested in 2 things, looks and price.
    Reply
  • dman3k
    Congratulations, Acer/Gateway.

    Go Taiwan. Go R.O.C.
    Reply
  • Wow, there are a lot of stupid people out there. Acer computers have to be some of the cheapest pieces of junk out there, and Acer customer support is almost non-existent! Not to mention their customer services sucks as well.

    -EDP
    www.Bauer-Power.net
    Reply
  • hillarymakesmecry
    I just had to buy a laptop (not a netbook). HP had the cheapest one ($330 brand new) that seemed fairly well constructed. So, that's what I purchased. I added to their market share dominance. : o /

    I think what attracted me to it the most was price, but apart from that it's not a fancy ostentatious behemoth with the manufacturer's name plastered all over it and stupid colors galore. I don't care about having my laptop 'stand out'.

    Thanks for making something cheap and boring for me HP!
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    Dell's name has been sinking the past few years. My customers won't even consider Dell's anymore. They won't let me suggest it. Not that I would...

    Acer seems to make quality stuff, and generally honors their warranties. HP seems to have serious DOA problems, but generally does the repairs in a reasonable time. They are also easy to 'mess with' when it comes to doing system purges.

    Reply
  • hellwig
    ProDigit80I wasn't that fond of the Acer laptop. It was probably the only laptop promoted in media stores, but it had low disk capacity (space and speed), and a low battery life.Give me an EeePc901 over this one any time!Huh? My fiancee's Acer Aspire 1 has a 160-GB harddrive and a 6-cell battery that gives her 5+ hours of use. Sure, you pay more than for the cheapest 8GB SDD w/ 3cell battery, but I'm not sure the cheapest EeePC is any better.

    And Acer just released their 11" netbook, so people complaining about how small the old one was shouldn't complain much anymore.
    Reply