Taipei - Taiwan's Acer replaced Toshiba as the world's third largest notebook brand in the fourth quarter of 2005, with 66.7-per- cent year-on-year growth - highest among the top five notebook vendors, Acer announced on Thursday.
Preliminary data from market researcher Gartner Dataquest showed that Acer notebooks ranked number one in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and number three in Asia Pacific with 117-per-cent growth, the highest among the top-ten vendors, Acer said in a news release.
For the total computer market, Acer ranked fourth and showed the highest year-on-year growth of 56.2 per cent among the top ten vendors.
Acer also ranked third in EMEA and fifth in Asia Pacific, with respective year-on-year growths of 48.3 per cent and 62.4 per cent. Both growth rates were the highest among the top five vendors.
In the US market, Acer is showing its strength as a rapidly-rising player in the computer industry, by delivering 145.3-per-cent growth for all personal computers, and 202.6 per cent for notebooks - highest among the top ten brands.
Moreover, Acer was the only growing desktop brand among the top ten.
In global notebook shipments in 2005's final quarter, Dell took the first place in terms of market share (17.1 per cent) and year-on- year growth (50.9 per cent),
According to Gartner's preliminary data for the fourth quarter of 2005, the top five notebook brands were Dell (17.1 per cent market share/50.9 per cent year-on-year growth), followed by Hewlett-Packard (16.5 per cent/41.8 per cent), Acer (12.2 per cent/66.7 per cent), Toshiba (10.5 per cent/20.9 per cent) and Fijitsu Siemens (8.1 per cent/20.9 per cent).
Founded in 1976, Acer employs 5,600 people in more than 100 countries.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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