The age of notebook PCs begin a new chapter in the history of computers with global notebook PC shipments exceeding those of desktops for the first time ever, during the third quarter of 2008, marking a watershed event in the history of the industry.

Notebook PC shipments rose almost 40 per cent in the third quarter of 2008 compared to the same period of 2007 to reach 38.6 million units. Conversely, desktop PC shipments declined by 1.3 per cent for the same period to 38.5 million units.

"Momentum has been building in the notebook market for some time, so it's not a complete surprise that shipments have surpassed those of desktops," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms at iSuppli, who conducted the research.

 "However, this marks a major event in the PC market because it marks the start of the age of the notebook. The notebook PC is no longer a tool only for the business market, or a computer for the well-off consumer; it's now a computer for everyman," he added.

The notebook's ascension to PC supremacy came during a strong quarter for the overall market. "While the third quarter will be remembered as the time when the scale of the global economic / credit crunch truly became apparent, the PC market managed to deliver strong unit shipment growth during the period," Wilkins noted.

Worldwide PC unit shipments rose 15.4 per cent on the third quarter of 2007, with 79 million units shipped. Overall third-quarter PC shipments exceeded iSuppli's prior expectations of 12 per cent year-over-year growth for the third quarter.

There were no changes to the Top-5 PC OEM listings and rankings for the third quarter of 2008, according to iSuppli.

Hewlett-Packard of the US retained its No 1 position in the third quarter of 2008, with shipments of 14.9 million units, and a market share of 18.8 per cent. Fellow PC maker Dell, maintained its second-place ranking with shipments of slightly less than 11 million units, giving the company a market share of 13.9 per cent.

No. 3 was Acer, with a market share of 12.2 per cent resulting from shipments of 9.7 million during the quarter - a standout performance. Rounding out the Top-5 PC OEM rankings were Lenovo and Toshiba, ranked fourth and fifth, with market shares of 7.5 and 4.6 per cent, respectively.

"The big news from iSuppli's market share data for the third quarter was undoubtedly the performance of Taiwan's Acer Inc.," Wilkins said. "On a sequential basis, the company grew its unit shipment market share by 45 per cent, and by 79 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

Acer shipped almost 3 million more notebooks in the third quarter than it did in the preceding quarter, with the majority of those 3 million being the company's netbook products. Clearly, the company's netbook strategy is paying dividends, with Acer now trailing Dell by less than 2 percentage points of market share for all PCs."

Desktop PC shipment levels declined by 1.3 per cent compared to the same period in 2007, while notebook shipments were up almost 40 per cent.

Looking outside of the Top-5 OEMs, Apple lost almost half a point of market share on a sequential basis at 3.2 per cent, placing it seventh overall in total PC shipments.

ASUSTeK Computer reported a great performance with its notebook shipments, surpassing Lenovo to become the fifth-largest notebook PC OEM while retaining its position overall as the sixth-ranked PC OEM in terms of total PC shipments.

In view of the better-than-expected third-quarter PC shipments, iSuppli has slightly increased its full year 2008 unit growth forecast from 12.5 per cent to 13.0 per cent. The revised 2009 outlook calls for PC unit growth of 4.3 per cent.