Acer storms up on lagging Dell in 2009 PC market

Acer enjoyed huge growth in 2009, showing a 21% increase in PC shipments. The Taiwanese computer maker went from 31.8 million unit shipments in 2008 to 38.5 million last year, according to research company iSuppli Corp.

While Acer showed the strongest growth among the world's five leading PC makers, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell did not have such a good year . Dell showed a 9.9% drop in shipments last year, with global PC shipments slipping from 43.3 million in 2008 to 38.96 million this past year, iSuppli said in a report released today.

With Acer growing and Dell struggling, Dell managed to hold on to the second-place spot in the PC market by a 0.2% margin over Acer. Dell held a firmer 3.8% point lead over Acer the year before.

"Acer's 2009 success was driven by the notebook PC market ," said Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst for iSuppli, in a statement. "Notebooks accounted for nearly 80% 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."

Wilkins added that Acer grabbed a 28% worldwide increase in laptop shipments last year, compared to a 20% increase in shipments for the entire market.