Acer has really come around in recent years terms of build quality and pricing. With that combination, Acer has officially claimed second place in global PC shipments according to research performed by Gartner, displacing the former king Dell, and now an arm’s length from HP, the current leader.

Much of Acer’s success this quarter came from strong sales in Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, giving the Taiwanese company a 13% market share from 12% the same quarter last year.

The second story in this report is Asus and Lenovo’s above average growth rate. While the average growth rate of all companies surveyed was 20.7%, Asus (5th place with 5.2% market share) grew an astounding 78.5% and Lenovo (4th place with 10% market share) grew 47.2%.

Acer Claims Second Place in Global PC Shipments. Asus and Lenovo Closing In. - General Tech 2

While in the U.S., HP and Dell are still tops with 25.7% and 23.7% market share respectively. Acer actually contracted slightly with a negative growth of 0.1%.

Sales of netbooks are slowing down, showing a growth of low 20% compared to the 70%+ in the past 2 quarters. It’s worth noting that Asus’ success this quarter was primarily from full-sized notebook sales.

It will be interesting to see how the market reacts when slate PCs enter the market in the next quarter and cannibalizes netbook sales.
“Acer continued to record strong shipment growth worldwide, fueled by solid PC sales in EMEA and Asia/Pacific. Dell registered its second consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Uptake in the professional PC market secured Dell’s PC business, but the consumer market was still a challenge for the company.

Lenovo’s PC shipments increased 47.2 percent in the second quarter of 2010, but there were some concerns over profitability as Lenovo was aggressive on pricing in key regions. ASUS had the strongest growth rate among the top five vendors worldwide in the second quarter, as its shipments increased 78.5 percent. ASUS was able to mix its product lineup from mini-notebooks and focused on selling more standard mobile PCs for better margins.”

Read the rest of the report here.