Acer Inc, the world's fourth-largest personal computer maker, posted the highest PC shipment growth in the last quarter among the top five makers, according to the findings of International Data Corp (IDC).
Acer shipped a total of 4.6 million PCs in the fourth quarter last year, demonstrating a strong growth of 37.8 percent from the same period in the previous year, and a rise of 35.5 percent over the previous three months, IDC said.
The Taiwanese maker narrowed its gap with No. 3 player Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), which Acer has vowed to overtake by the end of the year.
Acer improved its market share to 7.1 percent in the fourth quarter from 6 percent the third, while Lenovo's share dropped to 7.3 percent from 7.8 percent, the data showed.
"European markets, which contribute around 50 percent to Acer's PC sales, helped fuel its growth, as the fourth quarter is traditionally a busy period," said Molly Lin (
She said that Acer's growth would slow down in the first half of this year, which is a slow period in Europe and the US, and may only be able to overtake Lenovo in the final quarter because that period is usually marked by high consumer demand.
However, the target may be achieved earlier if Acer merges with smaller rival companies, she said.
"Acer is still weak in the US and Japan, so by merging with Gateway or Fujitsu, this would complement its strategies in these markets," Lin said.
Shares of Acer were up NT$0.6, or 0.99 percent, to NT$61.4 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
According to IDC, US computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) widened its lead as the world's top personal computer vendor in the fourth quarter last year, pressuring arch-rival Dell Inc.
HP experienced a sales growth of 23.8 percent last year and took a clear lead in worldwide shipment volume in the last three months of the year, it said.
Dell, meanwhile, did not recover from a slow third quarter and stumbled through to the end of the year with international growth dropping by 8.4 percent, IDC said.
HP basked in its sales triumph during a difficult year marred by a boardroom spying scandal and a soft US commercial market.
Sluggish sales of business computers hampered the US and Japanese markets at the end of last year, but demand for home computers and laptops remained strong, IDC said.
In the final quarter, 65.6 million PCs were shipped worldwide, with markets in Europe, Asia, Canada and Latin America expanding "at a healthy clip," IDC reported.
Overall PC shipments last year reached 228.6 million, 10 percent higher than the previous year, it said.
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