Acer Inc. in 2009 came within a hair's breadth of supplanting Dell Inc. as the world's No.-2 PC maker, as the Taiwanese computer maker achieved leading growth among the world's Top-5 brands for the year, according to iSuppli Corporation.

No.-3 ranked Acer enjoyed a 21% expansion in 2009, with its global PC unit shipments rising to 38.5 million, up from 31.8 million in 2008. This represented the strongest growth among the world's Top-5 PC makers in 2009.

In contrast, U.S.-based Dell suffered a 9.9% drop, with its shipments declining to 38.96 million in 2009, down from 43.3 million in 2008. Dell was the only Top-5 PC brand to post a decline in shipments for the year.

Due to these divergent performances, Dell ended 2009 with only a 0.2 percentage point lead over Acer, down from 3.8 points in 2008, allowing the U.S. PC OEM to hold the second rank by only the sparest of margins.

"Acer's 2009 success was driven by the notebook PC market," said Matthew Wilkins, Principal Analyst, Compute Platforms Research, for iSuppli. "Notebooks accounted for nearly 80% of Acer's shipments in 2009. This allowed the company to capitalize on the fast-growing mobile-computing segment while limiting its exposure to the moribund desktop segment."

Acer in 2009 achieved a 28% increase in shipments of notebook PCs for the year, compared to a 20% rise for the overall market.

"Acer owes its strong notebook success to the fact that it is covering the key bases well, with a strong portfolio encompassing both regular laptops and netbooks," Wilkins said.

Acer also managed to limit its losses in the desktop market. Company desktop shipments were flat in 2009, declining by a scant 0.1%, compared to a 15% drop for the entire market.

In contrast, Dell's desktop PC shipments fell at a greater rate than the overall desktop segment. Furthermore, its notebook shipments grew at a much lower rate than that of the overall market. Dell's share of the global PC market has dwindled in recent years, declining to 12.9% in 2009, down 4.2 points from 17.1% in 2005.

The Big Get Bigger in 2009, Mostly

For the full-year 2009, four of the Top-5 PC OEMs grew at rates higher than the overall industry. No.-1 ranked HP grew by 7.4%, whereas No.-3 Acer, No.-4 Lenovo and No.-5 Toshiba Corporation expanded by 21%, 14.2% and 13.7%, respectively. Only No.-2 Dell suffered a decline in shipments for the year.