Taiwanese firms squeeze out Apple, others

Acer and ASUS have together snapped up large portions of the western European computer market in the first part of the year, Gartner found in a breakdown of PC sales. Acer managed to hold the top spot in the continent in the first quarter of 2010 with 23.4 percent. Its frequent Taiwanese rival ASUS successfully pushed itself into fourth place through a major spike in market share from just 4.8 percent a year earlier to 7.9 percent today.

Other spots in the list aren't immediately available, but HP, Dell and Toshiba occupied the remaining positions in results from the fall.

Most of the credit for the companies' rise was attributed to netbooks, whose low prices have helped drive sheer numbers despite dragging down revenues for those companies that decide to sell them. Entry-level notebooks have also been a specialty of Acer's.

Apple has occasionally had a footprint in the top five in parts of Europe, particularly the UK, but has rarely had the kind of influence it does in North America. Europeans have historically gravitated towards a more varied range of brands than the US and were some of the first Westerners to be courted with PCs from Samsung and others that only recently reached Canada and the US.

By Electronista Staff