The global market for business-use PC products has continued to grow robustly since the beginning of 2011 after recording a 7.2% on-year growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2010. The top-three vendors in the business PC segment – Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell and Lenovo – will benefit from the market upswing, which may not include Acer.

Global shipments of business-use PCs, including notebooks, reached 41.28 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared to 38.5 million units of a year earlier. HP led fourth-quarter PC (including notebook) sales with total shipments of 8.59 million units, up 5.6% on year and 8.4% on quarter. Dell followed with shipments of 7.08 million units, up 12.9% but down 1.8% sequentially, while Lenovo shipped 6.1 million units, up 20.2% on year and 7.1% on quarter, according to IDC data.

However, Acer saw its share in the global business PC segment decline to 6.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared to 8.1% of the previous quarter.

Acer's focus on sales in Europe and on netbooks, and its reluctance to take delivery of business PCs from ODMs caused a setback in its global sales in the fourth quarter, pointed out industry sources.

Acer now aims to boost the ratio of revenues earned in China to 13-15% of its total revenues in 2011 compared to 10% in 2010 which will be crucial for the company to grab back its market share, the sources added.