Shane McGlaun03 November 2009, 10:00 AM
PC shipments are up, and which PC manufacturer bumped Dell off the number two spot?
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the global PC market has been down thanks to the poor economy. However, signs of improvement are showing -- research firm IDC has released its shipment numbers for Q3 2009, and they show that shipments of PCs have increased for the first time this year.
Admittedly, it was a small rise. For Q3 2009
global PC shipments rose a meek 2.3%. That may not be much growth year over year, but compared with Q1 2009 where the industry shrank 6.8% compared to 2008 and Q2 where it shrank 2.4% compared to 2008, the modest gain shows consumers finding good reasons to update their PC again -- good news for the industry.
The PC market in America grew 2.5%, the EMEA area declined a bit, Japan declined for the quarter by double-digit percentages, and Asia/Pacific excluding Japan saw nice growth in shipments. IDC only gave specific percentages for the growth in America.
There has also been a shake up on the top global PC shipper's rankings. HP still sits at the top of the list with 20.2% of the global PC market. However, Acer ousted Dell from its traditional number two spot on the list. Acer now owns 14% of the global PC market while Dell owns 12.7%. The improvement in Acer's shipment numbers have to be in part due to the global popularity of the
Acer Aspire One line of netbooks.