Taiwan-based Acer posted the best growth performance among the Top-5 PC suppliers on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter. Company PC shipments rose by 45.8 percent to reach 4.2 million units in the first quarter of 2007, up from 2.9 million in the first quarter of 2006. Due to this robust growth, Acer in the first quarter attained a market share of 6.8 percent, up from 5 percent in the first quarter of 2006. This gave Acer a 0.4 percentage point market-share lead over China's Lenovo, and put the Taiwanese PC OEM in the No. 3 position in the global PC market for the first time ever, up from No. 4 in the fourth quarter. The table presents iSuppli's quarterly rankings of the world's Top-5 PC OEMs Acer comes up aces This continues an impressive run for Acer; the company also achieved the largest percentage increase in unit shipments among the Top-5 suppliers in the fourth quarter of 2006, with Acer posting a 42.7 percent year-over rise. The company in the fourth quarter also displaced Toshiba Corp. to take third place in worldwide notebook PC market. “Acer conquered the No. 3 position in notebook shipments in the fourth quarter, and captured the third position in the overall PC market in the first quarter," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms for iSuppli. “Acer achieved significant growth in shipments of both desktop and notebook platforms in the first quarter of 2007 relative to the same period in 2006. Acer has momentum, is competing aggressively, and its strong channel presence is clearly paying dividends for both desktop and notebook shipments. While Lenovo led Acer in desktop PC shipments in the first quarter, Acer's lead in notebooks was even greater, giving it the No. 3 ranking." Asia/Pacific OEMs on the rise Acer and Lenovo have undergone a reversal of fortune compared to one year ago, when Acer trailed Lenovo by 0.9 percentage points in global PC market share. However, both companies have expanded their respective market shares considerably over the past year, reflecting the increasing market presence of the Asia/Pacific-based PC OEMs. “The power of the Asian PC OEMs is increasing, as we can see by the fact that these companies together accounted for 34 percent of total shipments from the Top-10 PC OEMs in the first quarter of 2007, up from 31 percent during the same period in 2006," Wilkins said. Winners and losers Acer and No. 1 Hewlett Packard of the United States were the standouts among the Top-5 PC suppliers, with their year-to-year growth rates outstripping those of Lenovo, Japan's Toshiba and most glaringly, Dell Inc. of the United States. Dell was the only PC OEM among the Top-5 to suffer a decline in units compared to the same period on 2006. The once-leading player in the PC industry saw a 6.8 percent reduction in units, with its shipments declining to 8.97 million units, down from 9.6 million in the first quarter of 2006. Dell's weak performance is all the more glaring given that the Top-5 PC OEMs in the first quarter increased their collective unit shipments by 14.2 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, handily outstripping the overall industry growth of 8.7 percent. “With the other Top-5 OEMs gaining market share at the expense of the smaller players, Dell had a challenging first quarter," Wilkins said. “Dell's performance in the notebook segment was good, but desktop shipments let the company down." However, Dell is taking steps to stanch its market-share losses. The company, which has exclusively employed a direct-sales model, announced a plan in the second quarter to sell PCs through the Wal-Mart retail chain in North America, as part of a wider channel offensive. The company also restored company founder Michael Dell to the role of chief executive officer. Dell's moves may be bearing fruit already; although company unit shipments were down by 6.8 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, the decline was less than the 8.6 percent decrease in the fourth quarter of 2006, Wilkins noted. Despite Acer's recent sales-growth strength compared to Dell, it's unlikely that the Taiwanese company will be able to supplant the much larger American OEM to take the No. 2 spot anytime soon. “The market-share gulf between No. 3 Acer and second-placed placed Dell is huge, at 7.6 percentage points. To threaten Dell's No.2 ranking, Acer needs to double its shipments," Wilkins said. To learn more about iSuppli's PC research, please visit: http://www.isuppli.com/catalog/L2_COMP.asp