Dell, whose Q3 notebook shipments were up 12% year-over-year, was outsold unit-wise by HP (+72%) and Acer (+54%), according to DisplaySearch's numbers, which give HP a worldwide market share of 21.4%, Dell 13.8% and Acer 12.8%.

But if you speed up the clock a bit and anticipate Acer's acquisition of Gateway and Packard Bell into the mix - which didn't close in Q3 - then Acer really had 16.2% of the worldwide market in Q3.

Such a turn may be unnerving for Dell, which calculates that 50% of the PCs sold worldwide by 2009 will be desktops. That's why it needs those retail outlets and channels in emerging markets.

DisplaySearch says the worldwide PC market grew 24% quarter-over-quarter in Q3 and 42% year-over-year to 29 million units and that Dell was down below 14% market share for the first time.

Toshiba was the only top brand to lose share quarter on quarter, it said.

Just in North America HP had 25% of the market and took the top spot while in EMEA Acer was first with 22%, ahead of HP with 20%. Lenovo owns 42% of China, down seven points.

The researcher expects continued growth this quarter with total notebook shipments for the year passing 103 million units.