The netbook category grew at a quarter-to-quarter rate of more than 160 percent in the third quarter, and Acer bypassed Asus as the top vendor, says a DisplaySearch study. Meanwhile, an ABI Research “Vendor Matrix” report finds Intel holding pole position among netbook processor vendors.

The hot market for netbooks, also known as “mini-notes,” is flying in the face of what looks to be a “dismal fourth quarter for the PC industry,” says DisplaySearch in its latest “Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report.” The netbook market grew from less than one million units sold in 2007 to a projected 14 million units sold by the end of 2008. Although operating system (OS) share is not detailed in the DisplaySearch report, Linux may be shipping on about a quarter of all netbooks (see farther below for more details).

Most of the top-tier PC brands have now entered the market, putting pressure on early netbook entrants, says the research group. Asus, which “essentially created the market” in late 2007 with its Eee PC netbooks, fell from its dominant position to a close second place position at 30.3 percent share in the third quarter, says DisplaySearch. Acer, meanwhile, surged to a leading 35 percent share with its Acer Aspire One netbook (pictured at top), which sold 2.15 million units in the third quarter alone, according to the study.

Third-quarter market share percentages for the netbook category are said to be:

Acer – 38.3
Asus — 30.3
HP — 5.8
MSI — 5.7
Dell — 2.8
OLPC — 2.3
Medion — 2.3
Kohjinsha — 1.0
Intel — 1.0
Lenovo — 0.7
Toshiba — 0.5
All others — 9.1

Further reading @ www.linuxdevices.com

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