Going by the recent reports of two research firms, Gartner and IDC, the robust third-quarter sales of low-priced computers helped in improving global computer shipments beyond the expected level.

In fact, the third quarter became the only quarter thus far this year to report an increase in PC shipments. IDC statistics revealed that the worldwide PC shipments during the quarter touched 78.1 million units, thereby marking a 2.3 percent increase in the same quarter last year figures.

On the other hand, data forwarded by Gartner, which was anticipating a fall of 5.6 percent in global PC shipments, revealed that the year-on-year increase in third-quarter shipments stood at a rather modest 0.5 percent.

With the PC market sales apparently gathering momentum, the third quarter also saw Acer overtaking Dell as the world's second-largest computer vendor - while Dell's shipments plunged 8.4 percent to 9.95 million units; Acer's shipments soared a notable 25.6 percent to 10.96 million units.

In the opinion of Jay Chou, an IDC research manager, Acer managed to take advantage of the strong shipments during the back-to-school season, with a fall in laptop prices and a pick up in netbook shipments.

Noting that the average selling price on consumer mobile computers dipped over 20 percent from last year, Gartner's principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa remarked: "Consumers were comfortable buying PCs, but they were relentlessly looking for bargains."