EL SEGUNDO, CA – Lenovo Group Ltd. regained the No. 3 ranking in the global PC market in the second quarter, but Acer Inc.’s aggressive acquisition strategy leaves analysts wondering how long Lenovo will maintain its rank.

Chinese PC OEM Lenovo shipped 4.9 million PCs worldwide in the quarter, up 22.9% sequentially, according to preliminary data compiled by iSuppli Corp. This marked the largest increase among the world’s top 10 PC suppliers – although it was only marginally ahead of the 17% sequential growth achieved by Apple Inc., says the research firm.

Hewlett-Packard cemented its position as the worldwide leader in PC shipments for the quarter. iSuppli’s latest PC forecast calls for unit growth of 11.7% in 2007 compared to 2006.

On a unit basis, Lenovo’s shipments rose by 908,000 sequentially. Lenovo reclaimed its rank from Acer, which took the No. 3 place from Lenovo in the first quarter.

This was a remarkable accomplishment, considering that overall shipments declined sequentially during the period, decreasing by 1.7%, or by 1.03 million units, says iSuppli.

Meanwhile, Acer’s PC shipments declined by 0.2%, iSuppli states.

Lenovo should enjoy its time in third – because iSuppli believes it may not last for long.

Acer’s planned acquisitions of Packard Bell and Gateway will afford the company approximately 2.5 percentage points of market share. If those acquisitions were figured into the second-quarter rankings, Acer would have retained its third-place ranking, according to the firm.

As a result of the planned acquisitions, Acer is expected to take a firm grip of the third-place position in the coming quarters, iSuppli concludes.

HP’s shipments rose to 11.2 million units, up 4.4% sequentially – and up by a whopping 35% year-over-year. HP’s market share rose to 18.3%, up from 17.2% in the previous quarter. The company’s growth in PC shipments outpaced the expansion of the overall PC industry by nearly a factor of three, says iSuppli.

Meanwhile, second-ranked Dell posted a 5.6% sequential increase in shipments. However, Dell’s shipments were down by 5% year-over-year, reflecting the company’s continued struggles, iSuppli reports.

Despite this, the shipment gap between Dell and HP remained constant between the second and first quarters, at 1.7 million units.

Four of the top five PC OEMs posted a sequential increase in sales, says the firm. Furthermore, four of the top five experienced double-digit growth year-over-year.

As a result, the proportion of quarterly shipments supplied by smaller OEMs in the “Others” category declined on both a year-over-year and a sequential basis in the second quarter, adds iSuppli.

The top three Asian PC vendors – Lenovo, Acer, and Toshiba – generated 56.3% of the combined shipments of HP and Dell, up from 54% in the first quarter.

This serves as a reminder of the strength of the North American vendors, but also illustrates that the Asian PC OEMs can increase their penetration of the market – even without major acquisitions, says iSuppli.

The notebook segment continued to drive growth in the overall PC market, with second-quarter growth of 27% on a year-over-year basis. 
 

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