It was bound to happen. With Dell not doing enough and Acer doing too good it was just matter of time before Acer overtook Dell. And guess what? Finally it has happened. Acer has officially overtaken Dell for second place in PC shipment worldwide. Acer overtook Dell in the third quarter of this year.

Thanks to growing PC shipment in third quarter because of back-to-school segment Acer was able to overtake Dell.

Acer is in a way leader in low-priced computers, so as the sales of low-priced computers goes up, market share of Acer goes up as well.

And thanks to recession people are preferring low-priced computers over expensive ones.

Acer's share of computers shipped increased to 15.4% during the quarter, from 12.5% a year ago, while Dell fell a percentage point to 12.8% year over year, according to Gartner.

IDC said Acer's shares jumped to 14% from 11.4%, while Dell slipped to 12.7% from 14.2%.

So what does Dell have to say? Dell said that its priorities are elsewhere. "As we've said for some time, we're focused on profitable growth, not simply share gain," a Dell spokesman said.

So in a way recession was a boon in disguise for Acer.

Ranking:
1. HP
2. Acer
3. Dell
4. Lenovo
5. Toshiba

[via WSJ]