Notebook PCs outsell desktops for first time

PC World - The third quarter of 2008 marked a first for the computer industry. According to iSuppli, more notebook PCs were sold globally than desktop PCs -- just for the quarter, however. Compared to the third quarter of 2007, notebook PC sales spiked 40% to 38.6 million computers sold. The desktop PC market didn't fare quite as well. Compared to the same time frame last year, sales shrank 1.3% to 38.5 million units sold.

"Momentum has been building in the notebook market for some time, so it's not a complete surprise that shipments have surpassed those of desktops," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms at iSuppli. "However, this marks a major event in the PC market because it marks the start of the age of the notebook."

Even given the crazy economic woes as of late, worldwide PC shipments grew 15.4% over Q3 2007, settling at 79 million computers shipped. Of this number, Hewlett-Packard Co. took top billing with its 18.8% market share. This translates to roughly 14.9 million computers shipped, 3.9 million more than second-place rival Dell Inc.

The biggest momentum came from Acer, which managed to sell 3 million more notebooks in the third quarter than it did in the second quarter, mostly from its new netbook line of products. The upswing represents a growth rate of 45% over second-quarter sales, and 79% compared to the third quarter of 2007. It's certainly no coincidence that the company's aggressively marketing its netbooks for the holiday season -- that could help the company see dramatic returns for the fourth quarter as well.

Since third-quarter PC returns came in a little higher than expected, iSuppli is modifying its 2008 forecasted growth rate from 12.5% to 13%. Similarly, the company expects PC sales to grow 4.3% in 2009.