Acer

Why Apple's shares rose as its market share shrank

On Wednesday, Gartner Research reported that Apple's (AAPL) share of the U.S. computer market, which topped 9% in calendar Q3 last year, dropped to 7.4% in Q1 2009 -- putting it in fourth place behind HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and Acer.

The next day, Apple's share price rose nearly 2% to finish Thursday at $121.45, its highest close in six months.

Why the disconnect? Chalk it up to the ASPs.

As Gartner's Mikako MORE

Amazon's Christmas bestsellers: Acer, Apple and Asus

Look what Santa left under Amazon.com's tree this Christmas morning:

7 Acer netbooks
7 Apple MacBooks
4 Asus netbooks
2 Samsung netbooks
2 MSI netbooks
1 OLPC (One laptop per child) XO laptop
1 Lenova Ideapad laptop
1 Toshiba Satellite laptop

Can you spot the ringer on Amazon's 2008 Christmas-day list of 25 bestselling notebook computers?

You guessed it. It's those seven premium-priced Apple (AAPL) MacBooks in a shopping cart dominated by stripped-down netbooks, heavily discounted Windows notebooks and a MORE

Reports: Apple is No. 3 PC maker in U.S., No. 6 worldwide

Dueling reports Wednesday from the two leading PC survey firms -- Gartner and IDC -- confirm what the crowds at the Apple (AAPL) stores have been telling us: The Mac had a great second quarter.

According to Gartner, Mac sales grew 38% year-over-year to edge out Acer/Gateway/PackardBell for the No. 3 spot in the United States after Dell (DELL) and HP (HPQ). IDC recorded slightly slower growth (31.7%) and has Apple still MORE

Reports: Apple slipped to 4th place in Q4 U.S. sales

Acer, the Taiwanese computer manufacturer that acquired Gateway Inc. last year, has as a result overtaken Apple (AAPL) in both U.S. and worldwide computer sales, according to preliminary reports issued Wednesday by Gartner and IDC.

Although the two market research firms show Apple's domestic computer sales in the Christmas quarter up roughly 30 percent from last year -- outpacing the industry average by better than 3 to 1 -- Apple's share MORE