Acer

Counting iPads, Apple is now No. 3 in PCs

Canalys bucks the trend and includes tablets in its analysis of worldwide PC shipments

Where research firms like Gartner, IDC and NPD saw anemic single-digit PC sales last quarter, Canalys saw what it described in a report issued Wednesday as "strong PC industry growth of 19% in Q4 2010."

The difference is that Canalys, unlike those other market research firms, includes tablets like Apple's (AAPL) iPad in its definition of a PC.

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Acer to announce Android 2.2 tablet today in NYC?

According to a Taiwanese news source, the world's second biggest PC manufacturer may announce a 7-inch Android tablet alongside the announcement of its 10-inch Windows 7 tablet today.

Digitimes reports that today might be a big day for tablets.  The 10-inch Windows tablet seems like a lock, but a smaller, Android tablet that would go head-to-head with the Samsung Galaxy Tab (which just announced 600,000 units sold in the first month of sales) MORE

When is that ChromeOS netbook coming? Digitimes: This month!

According to reports from Asia, Google will release an ARM-based ChomeOS laptop in limited numbers in time for the holidays.

The details are short but Taiwan-based  Digitimes reports Google's (GOOG) first Chrome laptops will be self-branded and are en route to the U.S. as we speak. Digitimes anticipates a November announcement and  a small allotment of Google netbooks to be available for the holidays,  similar to how  Google distributed the MORE

'Consumer fatigue' vs. the 'halo effect'

Apple breaks the 10% U.S. market share barrier as netbook sales continue to sag

Although they disagree, as usual, about the details, the message from Gartner and IDC's quarterly PC market share reports Wednesday was the same: Apple is going gangbusters, the rest not so much.

IDC's Bob O'Donnell puts it most succinctly:

"Apple's influence on the PC market continues to grow, particularly in the U.S., as the company's iPad has had some MORE

Mac vs. Windows: Tracking the customer satisfaction gap

Generic PC users are happier than they were, but still not as happy as Apple's customers

The chart above, posted by my colleague David Goldman at CNNMoney early Tuesday, says it all.

The release of Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 7 helped undo some of the damage done by Vista, as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index's 16th annual survey of computer users. But Apple (AAPL) remains in the lead for the MORE

Is the iPad driving down chip prices?

Samsung warns of a memory glut from weakening PC sales as consumers turn to tablets

File this under unintended consequences.

On Tuesday, according to Reuters, the world's largest manufacturer of memory chips warned that DRAM prices may fall in the next two quarters due to weakening demand for notebook and desktop computers.

"If the PC market continues to slow, we may see a kind of oversupply in Q4 or Q1," Kwon Oh-hyun, head MORE

Tough slogging for iPad knockoffs

Many will try, few will survive, says an Asian manufacturer working on several of them

Two new tablet computers based on Google's (GOOG) Android operating system -- one from Samsung, the other by Toshiba -- were introduced at a trade show in Berlin this week, part of a wave of knockoff designs inspired by Apple's (AAPL) iPad.

Many of them will disappear within a year, Compal Electronics president Ray Chen told investors MORE

Chrome woos three PC titans from Windows

If you really want to make a splash in the PC industry, it helps if you have the three biggest players signed up.

According to some files located inside of the latest ChromeOS, Google is readying builds of its OS for three different hardware makers.  HP (with reservation), Dell, and Acer.

If those names sound familiar, it is because they are the world's three leading PC manufacturers according to IDC and MORE

How the PC market grew 22.7%

The fastest year-to-year growth since iSuppli starting tracking computer shipments in 2003

The charts say it all. Three Asian suppliers -- Acer, Lenovo and ASUS (from a small base) -- led the field. Apple (AAPL) and Toshiba were close behind. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell (DELL) grew more slowly.

In terms of market share, HP is still No. 1, but Acer is gaining fast, having passed Dell to reach the No. 2 spot. MORE

Intel vs. AMD gets interesting again

Left for dead, AMD is showing why it can never be counted out.

When I sat down with AMD CEO Dirk Meyer a few weeks ago to talk about how he planned to invigorate the wayward chipmaker, Intel barely came up.

Now it's clear why. Rather than focus on his perennial rival, Meyer has been whipping his own company into shape. The results so far look promising: AMD (AMD) is poised to MORE