Laptops outsell desktops for first time

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 24 Dec 2008 at 09:07

Worldwide laptop shipments topped those of desktops for the first time ever in the third quarter, according to research group iSuppli.

Shipments of notebook PCs surged nearly 40% to 38.6 million units, while desktop shipments fell 1.3% to 38.5 million.

Overall, PC shipments rose 15.4% in the quarter to 79 million units.

Acer shipped almost 3 million more notebooks in the third quarter than in the previous quarter, with the majority being netbooks, iSuppli claims. The Taiwanese company is now the third largest PC company by market share at 12.2%, less than two percentage points behind second-place Dell.

HP maintained its lead, shipping 14.9 million units for an 18.8% market share.

Apple lost nearly half a point of market share from the second quarter. The company's 3.2% share places it seventh overall in total shipments.

iSuppli raised slightly its 2008 unit growth forecast. It now expects 13% growth this year, up from its previous forecast of 12.5%.

For 2009, the group expects unit growth of 4.3%.