Acer, ASUS gaining ground against HP and Dell.

In the world of laptops a few brands have always been the most popular: Sony, Toshiba, HP and Dell. A few years ago, Acer and ASUS jumped on the scene, producing moderately priced, quality laptops. Those smaller brands started inching their way towards the top. Now it appears worldwide consumers are trending away from paying high dollar for the brand name. Especially when the technology is advancing faster than you can pay your credit card bill.

According to Gartner, which tracks worldwide shipments of laptops and analyzes trends, Acer is gaining ground on the worlds most popular laptop brand, HP. During the 2nd quarter of 2010, HP had about 17% of the market share, while Acer had 13%. That's not very stunning until you compare the same two companies' market share from the 2nd quarter of 2009, HP had 18% and Acer had 12%. (It should be noted, at this time last year, Acer was trailing Dell, 12.6% M.S. in worldwide sales.) To round out the top 5, after Dell is Lenovo, followed by ASUS, which bumped Toshiba out of the top 5 in worldwide sales.

When you look at the US sales statistics, you notice that US sales don't necessarily mimic the worldwide trends. HP still sits atop the list with 25.7% of the market, followed by Dell, 23.7%, Acer, 11.3%, Apple 9.8%, and Toshiba rounding out the top 5 with 8.7%.

In EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) sales are vastly different. Acer takes the the number 1 spot away from HP, with 21.3% of the market. That's up from 18.9% last year. HP is in 2nd place with 19.7%, down from 20.8%. But then there's a dramatic drop off between 2nd and 3rd, Dell sits with only 9.2% of the market in the region, while ASUS, 8.5%, and Toshiba, 5.7% place 4th and 5th, respectively.

These trends could be a result of the worldwide economic downturn, as more and more consumers are tightening their belts and looking at wallet friendly alternatives to fit their laptop needs.

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Thin is In When it Comes to Laptops

According to iSuppli, a market research firm, 2010 will be all about netbooks and ultra-thin laptops. As a matter of fact, even though the market experienced a 19% increase in sales last year (up from 2008), numbers for this year are expected to be even higher. They also expect this trend to carry on for the next four years, into 2014.

Laptops, Ultra-thin laptops, and Netbooks

In 2010, over 34.5 million netbooks are expected to ship (an increase of 30%) and in 2014, those numbers are expected to reach 58.3 million units sold. When it comes to the newer ultra-thin laptops, 14.5 million units are expected to ship this year, which is a 93% increase from the 7.5 million units shipped in 2009. As for standard laptops, they still dominate the market (160.5 million units are expected to ship in 2010), but growth is only about 21%. It's expected that notebooks will continue to dominate the market over the next few years, but thinner versions are definitely on their way up.

Acer is Number One

When it comes to computer-makers, Acer remains number one. The company, based in Taiwan, was at the top in 2008 and 2009, and iSuppli expects that to be the case in 2010. 37% of all laptops shipped last year came from Acer, which drives sales with competitive pricing, strong channel distribution, and quick production to market time. Asustek Computer came in at number, while Hewlett Packard, Samsung, and Dell rounded out the top five. However, the number two spot will potentially see Samsung or HP taking over. Those five companies alone make up 90% of the laptop market.

Another reason for Acer's popularity is it's creation ultra-thin laptops in 2009, something other companies hadn't yet started making. The company shipped around five million ultra-thin laptops in 2009. Asustek shipped about 700,000 ultra-thin unites, and together with Acer, dominated the market. Companies such as HP, Dell, and Toshiba didn't get into the ultra-thin game until late in the year, but they are expected to do so in 2010, which means lots of changes and competition to be number one.

Total Numbers

If iSupply's data is any indication, laptop popularity, as a whole, will continue to grow and dominate the computer market, with more and more people trading in their powerful standard laptops for netbooks and ultra-thing models. Rumor has it some companies, such as Toshiba, will be working to make thinner laptops more powerful.

In 2009, 166.9 laptops were sold. This year, 209.5 unites are expected to sell, with 371.5 units being sold in 2014.

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Acer's New Aspire Ethos TouchScreen Laptop

This week, Acer announced its new Aspire Ethos laptops. The laptops have a secondary touchscreen, which doubles as a touchpad. The new technology is meant to help users navigate through multimedia content. The touchscreen is placed below the keyboard where a touchpad would normally be located and it displays movie and music navigation icons. According to spokesperson for the company, the icons allow you to do thing such as adjust volume or go through images.

In a press release, Acer said, "The media console is now combined with the touchpad, providing a set of commands all managed by a single key and a completely new approach to entertainment control." They also stated that the new technology leaves the laptop's surface looking clean and elegant.

According to PC World, Acer is not the only company looking to make touchpads a little fancier. Synaptics is adding gesture functionality, which allows users to perform routine tasks more quickly. They also report that Intel has suggested auxiliary screens that display widgets that allow you to do things such as type Twitter messages replace touchpads.

The new Acer laptops feature Advanced Micro Devices ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards, which are great for watching HD DVDs. They can also be bought with Blu-ray Disc drives and they each run Intel's Core i5 or Core i7 processors. The laptops also include Acer's Arcade Deluxe multimedia management software, which allows users to take more advantage of the touchpad controls and makes it easier to share content through YouTube, Facebook, and Flickr.

The Ethos 8943G will have a 18.4-inch screen and the Ethos 5943G will feature a 15.6-inch screen. Each one will have up to 1.28TB of storage through two 640GB hard drives, as well as including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Release dates and prices are not yet available.

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Acer's TimelineX 1830T

As they often do, computer geeks everywhere got excited when they heard that Acer has made an FCC filing regarding a new laptop - the TimelineX 1830T - but not a lot of information was known about the computer. Now the mystery is solved as some computer bloggers have gotten their hands on some of the specs for the TimelineX 1830T and it seems as though, for the most part, they're pretty excited.

The Laptop is based on the Intel Calpella platform, specifically on the HM55 chipset and the Intel Core i5-520UM dual-core CPU. It has a base clock speed of 1.06GHz and supports Hyper Threading. It comes with Intel Turbo Boost technology, which can make it go as high as 1.83GHz, depending on the active cores, temperature, and utilization.

It features 2GB of RAM, an 11.6-inch screen with a maximum resolution of 1366 x 758 pixels, and a 160GB hard drive. The graphics core has a clock between 166MHz and 500MHZ. According to experts, that's not great for gaming, but it works well for video.

Connecting to the internet and other communication shouldn't be a problem. The laptop features Gigabit LAN, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a multi-card reader, three USB 2.0 ports, and an HDMI output. As far as looks go, it has a full-sized keyboard with flat keys, is about an inch thick, has a textured mesh on the cover of the lid and the touchpad is barely noticeable.

The battery is supposed to last around eight hours. Acer will announce the new notebook during the last week of March, along with other new TimelineX Series notebooks. No word on when it will be available or how much the new laptop will sell for.

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Acer Aspire One 532h

Acer is one of the top netbook manufacturers on the market and has held onto a steady lead in terms of sales in the past year. The companies angle was simple, basic netbooks at lower prices would sell like hotcakes and they were right. Well the Taiwanese company's newest netbook, the Aspire One 532h, holds true to the very formula that has boosted the company's sales.

The design of the 532h is nearly identical to its predecessor, the Aspire One 751h. The main difference you will notice is the multi-colored, metallic-blue and black lid. The device itself is quite portable weighing about 2.4lbs and measuring only .99" thick which makes it thinner than its competition, the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE and the MSI Wind U135 and the all-plastic chassis feels like the right fit for the price tag.

The 532h utilizes a chiclet style keyboard but it doesn't feel like it was implemented good enough. The keyboard is spacious and has two full shift keys, the key spacing feels to close and the keys feel too flat which seems to make touch typing somewhat difficult. The touchpad is of the kind that "flows" along with the rest of the palm rest. By this I mean that the only way you can tell where the palm rest stops and the touchpad begins is by the feel of the grid of rubber dots that makes up the touchpad. The pad feels nice on your fingers but it can feel too grippy sometimes.

The 10.1" screen has a native resolution of 1024x600 pixels which is typical for its class. However, the screen is surrounded by a very thick black bezel which, in my opinion, looks pretty bad and the horizontal viewing angels aren't all that great. The 532h comes with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive that also comes with Windows 7 Starter Edition for a price tag of $349.99. There is a $299.99 version that comes with 160GB of storage as well. The standard 6-cell battery has a solid 6.5 hour battery life which is pretty good for a netbook.

The specs on this machine aren't going to be the main reason it sells a lot of units. While good, the specs are not that good. What really is going to get people is the price. The price difference is between $30 and $80 depending on which model you get and that is going to be a deciding factor for many people. If you are looking for a great on-the-go netbook that is truly a netbook then the Aspire One 532h is something you should definitely consider.

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The New Acer Aspire One

The new Acer Aspire One is now thinner and lighter than any previous Acer netbook. Acer managed to eliminate a sizeable amount of plastic within their best-selling netbook design to allow for these qualities, while still maintaining their reasonable price point.

Netbook design is not really one of Acer’s strengths. Although the plastic-topped Aspire One does not win any beauty pageants, there are many qualities that make up for the netbook’s lack of style. The Aspire One beats most comparable netbooks with its mere 0.8-inch thickness. This makes it thinner than the Samsung N120, the ASUS EeePC 1000HE, the ASUS EeePC 1008HA (Seashell), and the HP Mini 1000. The new Acer netbook is now also lighter. With the three-cell battery, it only weighs 2.4 pounds.

Considering other aspects, the Aspire One retains the standard 10-inch screen, 1,024 x 600 resolution, and customary keyboard. The 89 percent keyboard is certainly a feature that Acer needs to attend to. Acer was able to include mutitouch capabilities into the Aspire One, but with the limited space you have to work with performing such actions can be difficult at times.

The Aspire One features three USB ports, VGA-out, an Ethernet port, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 802.11 g WiFi, and a 4-in-1 card reader. It also has a 160GB hard drive, which is the same or better than all other netbooks currently on the market. The Aspire One contains a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 GB of memory, and Intel integrated graphics.

Even with the new updates found in the Acer Aspire One, Acer has managed to retain its affordable price. The Aspire One is the most reasonably priced netbook to be found at about $300, which is the reason why the previous Acer model was the best-selling netbook available. The Aspire One is lighter, thinner, and cheaper than most other netbooks out there. If you’re looking for an inexpensive netbook, this is definitely one to check out.

Laptop Sales Surpass Desktop Sales in 2008

For the first time in history, laptop sales have surpassed desktop sales. With the world's growing demand for mobility, the laptop has finally outdone the PC. Research shows that in the third quarter of 2008 laptop sales have increased by 40% compared to last year while desktops sales have fallen. The laptop wasnt predicted to outdo the PC in sales until around 2011, but with the momentum that the laptop industry has been building, its no surprise that the laptop is taking over.

Hewlett-Packard still holds the lead in notebook sales but Acer is becoming a big player in the market seeing as they have increased their unit shipment market share by 45 percent. Acer was the big reason for laptops outpacing desktops because in the third quarter, Acer shipped almost 3 million more notebooks than in the previous quarter.

It seems that we are entering a new age and thats the age of the notebook.