HP, Acer Notebook Sales Skyrocket

Sales were so brisk that each of the nine biggest notebook companies saw double-digit growth during the second quarter and the industry itself grew by more than 24 percent, DisplaySearch found. The firm said it was raising its estimate from 97.5 million notebooks shipping in 2007 to 103 million.

Sales were growing in just about every category, including consumer, commercial and emerging markets, DisplaySearch said in a statement. The second quarter of the calendar year is usually a time when notebook shipments dip slightly, firm analysts found.

Austin, Texas-based DisplaySearch also said Dell maintained its market share lead in North America by shipping 1.9 million notebooks in the region, even while growing at a comparatively tepid 10 percent worldwide during the most recent three-month period.

HP, Dell and Acer made up the world's first, second and third market share leaders in notebooks during the quarter, with 19.5 percent, 14.1 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively of all notebook shipments worldwide. HP's market-leading total came in at 4.7 million notebooks shipped during the quarter, DisplaySearch found.

Last week, HP sought to bolster its notebook lineup and market share lead, by launching a series of new notebooks under both the HP and Compaq brands.

The top three were followed by Toshiba at 9.5 percent; Lenovo at 8.5 percent; Fujitsu-Siemens at 5.5 percent; Apple at 4.7 percent; Sony at 4.6 percent and Asus at 3.7 percent market share.

Executives at the top PC and notebook makers said they found component prices were running lower than expected during the second quarter, but that they expected they would eventually bounce back up.