Acer sold 3.4 million mobile PCs in Q4 2006, compared with 2.3 million in Q3, making it the fastest growing Top 5 supplier. Acer’s growth was nearly three times the overall industry growth for the quarter of 15.5 per cent.
The iSuppli research also found number one notebook supply Hewlett-Packard also experienced strong growth of 36 per cent in Q4, shipping just over five million units.
Dell, the second largest supplier, sold 3.5 million mobile PCs in Q4, 15 per cent fewer than the previous year. Toshiba sales contracted 1 per cent putting it in fourth position, while Chinese supplier Lenovo grew nine per cent to round out the Top five.
“Acer came, Acer saw and Acer conquered in the fourth quarter,” iSuppli computer platforms principal analyst Matthew Wilkins said.
“The company has been very public about its intention to capture the Number three spot in the mobile-PC market and the fourth quarter ranking shows the company is putting its money where its mouth is,” he said.
Wilkins said Acer’s success was due to aggressive pricing strategies, which resulted in very impressive sales gains, particularly in Europe.
Dell posted the weakest performance of the Top-5 mobile-PC OEMs in the fourth quarter, with its shipments declining to 3.52 million units, down 1.5 percent from 3.57 million in the third quarter.
Dell’s troubles in mobile PCs were due mainly to the increasingly competitive situation with Hewlett-Packard, and a generally tougher battle with other OEMs in the wider mobile-PC market, Mr Wilkins said.
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