In terms of PC shipments, Dell pulled ahead of neck-and-neck competitor Acer
during the fourth quarter of 2010, according to a March 10 report from IHS
iSuppli. Helping Dell, said the firm, was the same device partly blamed for sluggish PC shipments the quarter
before: the Apple iPad.
The iPad and competing tablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab, are hurting
sales of netbooks and notebooks — ÖAcer’s bread and butter. According to IHS
iSuppli, Dell’s fourth-quarter PC shipments remained completely flat. It didn’t
move ahead so much as Acer fell backÖby 12.9 percentÖhurt by a loss of consumer
interest. (Between the iPad’s April 2010 launch date and December 2010, Apple CEO
Steve Jobs announced recently, Apple sold nearly 15 million tablets. More bad
news for the netbook makers: March 11 marks the debut of the iPad 2.)
“A little more than one year after a prolonged decline in shipments
caused Dell to lose its customary second-place ranking to rival Acer, Dell now
seems to have regained a firm hold on the No. 2 rank,” Matthew Wilkins, an
IHS iSuppli principal analyst, said in a statement. “Acer in the third
quarter of 2009 had surged to the No. 2 spot on the strength of its strong
sales of netbook PCs to consumers and a generally buoyant consumer market.
However, with momentum for consumer PCs waning and in light of growing
competition from media tablets, Acer’s gains have been reversed.”
For more, read the eWEEK article: Dell, Helped by Apple iPad, Grabs No. 2 PC Spot from Acer.