Notebook computer marketshare has seen a major shakeup in the third calendar quarter of this year, says a recent report from the marketing research group IDC. While HP retains a comfortable lead, Acer and ASUS have both moved up one rank to assume second and eighth places respectively. Acer's tactic of splitting its portables into clearly split home-oriented Aspire notebooks and business TravelMate lines has lead the company to sell 4.15 million notebooks and achieve a marketshare of 14.2 percent, keeping Dell at third place with 4.01 million and continuing the Texas firm's sales slump versus its rivals, according to the report.

Acer, ASUS, and HP are the only three firms to have seen particularly rapid growth, expanding their notebook sales by as much as 60 percent year-over-year during the second and third quarters.

However, other companies also fared well in the rankings through attention to more specific models, IDC adds. Apple and Fujitsu in particular held to positions in the middle of the rankings due to a successful focus on their high-end MacBook Pro and LifeBook models respectively. Sony, however, has dropped just below ASUS at ninth place through an inability to sell its traditional high-end systems; it has resorted to low-cost systems such as the VAIO NR to bolster its bottom line.

Full details of the marketshare results are still pending.