And in third place…

In the bitterly competitive world of PCs, Taiwan’s Acer is suddenly rising up the ranks. According to Gartner, it has squeaked past Lenovo to claim third place behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell, with more than 8% of the global PC market in the third quarter of 2007. And that’s before the sales of newly-acquired Gateway are figured in.

What’s more, the company told a third quarter investors’ conference in Taipei that Acer could secure a 12% share of the global PC market in 2008, putting it within striking distance of Dell, the number two player. I guess the question for 2008 is whether Dell can get its mojo back before it gets aced.