Gartner PC Report: Acer Outpaces Market

Looking for an alternative PC vendor to market leaders Dell, HP and Lenovo? One supplier to keep an eye on is Taiwanese Acer, whose growth last year well outpaced the market, according to preliminary results of Gartner's annual PC market share report.

While Acer shipped 10.2 million units, less than one-third of those sold by Dell, it grew 58 percent over 2004, when it shipped 6.4 million units, giving it a market-share jump from 3.4 percent to 4.6 percent. At the same time, Dell's and HP's shares dropped, while Lenovo and Fujitsu held their own. Worldwide PC growth was 15 percent.

"I think they are operating an extremely lean model and, therefore, they have to be considered a growing threat in the marketplace," said Gartner analyst Charles Smulders. Right now, Acer's strongest presence is in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions, but the company has already begun stepping up its marketing efforts in the United States.

Is America losing its edge?

Then again, the United States is no longer king of the heap in the PC market. Indeed, 2005 will be remembered as the year that shipments in Europe and Asia for the first time exceeded deliveries in the United States.

EMEA PC shipments totaled 72,649, according to Gartner, compared with 67,153 in the United States, according to preliminary results of its annual PC market share report released this week. That spells growth in EMEA of 17.1 percent compared with just 7.5 percent.

That shift is not looking to change in 2006, given the saturation of PCs in the United States and the number of those in EMEA that still don't have systems.

"The US market has fewer new seat opportunities than the EMEA market, therefore it's much more dependent on replacement activity," Smulders said. "When you look at the replacement cycles, certainly the U.S. has peaked in 2005."