Consumer Electronics on Ulitzer
Gartner told Reuters that it overestimated how many PCs Acer shipped in the last seven quarters by around 11%. Not a little matter since Acer ousted Dell from the number two spot worldwide during that time.
By Reuters' calculations Gartner miscounted by as many as a million boxes in some of the quarters between 1Q08 and 3Q09.
Gartner, whose numbers for Acer have been higher than IDC's, did not explain the miscount or how it came to light. Acer gives the bean counters "guidance" on its shipments.
A Daiwa Securities analyst suggested to Reuters that it could be netbook returns from telecom operators.
Last quarter IDC rated Acer the fastest-growing PC brand, up 25% year-over-year and outstripping HP, Lenovo and Toshiba.