SlashGear

The numbers are in and it is undeniable that the netbook market has hit the ground running. DisplaySearch has released a Mini-Note PC Volume and Market Share 3Q 2008 report showing that Acer has come out way ahead of Asus. Acer came in at 2.15 million, while Asus only claimed 1.70 million, that’s a difference of 8 percent overall.

We were very surprised to see Acer pull head by such a large margin with their amazing Acer Aspire One. In the third quarter of 2008, the netbook market grew more than 160 percent. We have waited for years for the netbook idea to catch on. Netbooks seem to be exactly what consumers need in these trying times. We find it particularly odd that Samsung did not even show up on the list with their NC10.

At very distant third, HP comes in with .33 million, that’s just 5.8 percent. We expected their Mini-Note line to do much better than they actually did. It looks like we are going to have to cross our fingers and hope that their sales improve in the fourth quarter. This report speaks volumes against all those who criticize the netbook market. It is undeniably clear that netbooks are here to stay.