It’s Official: Acer Passes Lenovo for Third Place in Global PC Sales

Lenovo officially has lost its ranking as the world’s third largest PC manufacturer, but that fact doesn’t mean the company isn’t growing.

Lenovo, which maintains its world headquarters in Morrisville, fell to fourth place behind Acer, according to the latest quarterly sales statistics as compiled by two technology research firms. However, the swap in places had been expected since Acer closed recently on the acquisition of U.S.-based Gateway.

That deal and a growth in sales pushed Acer to a 9.6 percent share in the world market, according to analyst firm IDC. The other firm tracking sales, Gartner, put Acer’s share at 9.5 percent.

However, Lenovo still improved its global market share to 7.5 percent according to IDC and 7.7 percent by Gartner. Lenovo is increasing sales after launching a concerted effort to sell more laptops and PCs to consumers on a global basis.

Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), which operates its largest manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem, also received good news in the statistics. After several quarters of declining market share and falling behind HP (NYSE: HPQ) in the battle for the top sales spot, Dell sales jumped 15 percent in the fourth quarter.

As a result, Dell’s U.S. market share in the U.S. grew to 29.6 percent, based on IDC’s totals, and 31.4 percent, according to Gartner.

Fourth-quarter PC sales continued the rapid increase reported in the third quarter. In fact, the U.S. growth rate beat predictions, countering recent forecasts that spending growth in the broader U.S. technology sector would slow this year, and eventually hurt overseas tech markets.
The fourth quarter's increase in computer shipments was roughly in line with the third quarter, when shipments rose at the fastest rate in nearly two years.

IDC said shipments in October through December rose 15.5 percent, to 77.4 million units, up from 67 million a year earlier.

Gartner pegged the growth at a slightly slower 13.1 percent, with 75.9 million units shipped, up from 67.1 million in last year's fourth quarter.

The two firms use slightly different measurements.

In the third quarter, IDC also reported year-over-year growth of 15.5 percent, while Gartner estimated 14.4 percent.

IDC said U.S. computer shipments grew at a stronger-than-expected 8.8 percent in the fourth quarter, while Gartner put the U.S. gain at 7.2 percent.

IDC said U.S. and global gains were driven by growing popularity of mobile computers as well as shifts into new sales channels by Dell and Taiwan-based Acer Inc. Dell has recently begun selling through large retail chains such as Wal-Mart and Staples, in a departure from its direct-to-customer business model.

"Fourth-quarter results show a very healthy PC market," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's worldwide quarterly PC tracker. "There is a lot happening with vendors repositioning their channels and going after new markets, while falling prices and portable adoption continue to drive volume."

The U.S. economic downturn has triggered predictions that U.S. technology spending won't grow as fast as it has - concerns that were heightened Tuesday after Intel Corp.'s robust profit and sales figures narrowly missed analyst expectations.

The chip-maker said the PC business appeared to be healthy and blamed its shortfall on lower-than-expected sales of a type of flash memory found in many digital gadgets.

But IDC said it does expect the growth in PC shipments to slow.

"Despite fourth-quarter strength, projections for the next couple years anticipate slower growth," Loverde said. "Rising concerns about economic growth are likely to reduce expectations further, although we're still likely to see double-digit growth through 2008 and probably 2009."

IDC reported that 269 million PCs shipped in 2007, for annual growth of 14.3 percent.

Gartner counted 271.2 million units shipped last year, a 13.4 percent increase.

The year "showed a clear indication of the worldwide PC market landscape: strong growth in emerging regions such as Asia/Pacific and slower growth in markets such as the United States," Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said.

Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard moved ahead of Dell in late 2006 as the world's largest PC maker, an edge it maintained in last year's fourth quarter.

Both IDC and Gartner put HP's worldwide market share at 19 percent, up from IDC's 17.8 percent market share estimate in the previous year's fourth quarter and Gartner's 17.4 percent estimate. Both research firms said HP posted a 23 percent gain in shipments.

Dell's global share in the latest period stood at 14.6 percent, according to IDC, and 14.5 percent according to Gartner. Round Rock, Texas-based Dell posted a 17 percent rise in shipments.

Both firms ranked Japan-based Toshiba Corp. fifth, with a roughly 4 percent share.