In 2019 the worldwide PC market grew, yet two of Taiwan’s biggest vendors saw their portions of that growth shrink. According to Gartner’s rankings released on January 26, Acer shipped 14.76 million units, good for fifth place worldwide, while Asustek moved 14.48 million units to claim sixth. Despite holding those positions, both companies lost market share: Acer’s fell from 6.1 percent to 5.7 percent and Asustek’s dropped from 5.9 percent to 5.5 percent.
The implied global total for the year‑end 2019 was roughly 261 million PCs. A loss of four‑tenths of a percentage point in share therefore corresponds to more than one million machines.
That shift in volume translates directly into lower revenue and profit for the two Taiwanese firms. At the top of the table, Lenovo led with 62.97 million shipments, HP followed with 57.92 million, Dell took third, and Apple finished fourth. Those four vendors together dominate the narrative, leaving Acer and Asustek to compete for the remaining slice. Gartner senior principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa noted that the overall PC market expanded 0.6 percent in 2019 compared with 2018.
She projected that growth would continue through 2020, even after Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 earlier that month. Her reasoning centered on emerging regions—China, Eurasia, and the emerging Asia‑Pacific—where many businesses have yet to upgrade their fleets, creating fresh demand.
However, Kitagawa warned that the upgrade wave may not benefit Acer and Asustek. When corporate buyers refresh large numbers of machines, they tend to favor Lenovo, HP, or Dell because those companies possess the enterprise sales forces, service contracts, and supply chains needed for big orders. Acer and Asustek have historically built their reputations on consumer notebooks and small‑business systems, a different segment of the market.
The numbers confirm the divergence: while total shipments rose, both Taiwanese vendors lost share, indicating that their competitors grew faster. Lenovo, HP, and Dell absorbed the bulk of the market’s expansion, leaving Acer and Asustek essentially treading water.
For Taiwan’s economy, the two firms are not minor players; they are pillars of the island’s electronics sector. A prolonged decline in their PC share would put pressure on suppliers in Taipei and across the Taiwan Strait, shrink component orders, slow assembly lines, and affect an industry that employs thousands. Kitagawa’s outlook offers a limited window of opportunity.
She anticipates growth to persist through 2020, but notes that the clock is ticking now that Windows 7 support has ended. The upgrade wave in emerging markets will eventually crest and then recede.
Once those businesses complete their transitions, the replacement cycle will slow, and the PC market is expected to return to its long‑term downward trajectory. Additional pressures come from tablets and smartphones, which have taken over the low‑end of the market, and from cloud computing, which has eroded demand for traditional servers. The PC is not dead, but it is no longer a growth engine.
Both Acer and Asustek have attempted to diversify. Acer has pushed into gaming hardware and cloud services, while Asustek has strengthened its motherboard and component lines and expanded its Republic of Gamers brand.
Nevertheless, PCs remain the core of their businesses; when that core contracts, the whole organization feels the impact.
