The worldwide market for notebook computers shrank 6 percent during the first quarter of 2008, according to the latest figures from DisplaySearch, but that isn’t stopping Dell whose retail push has seen it regain second place in worldwide laptop shipments, after being displaced by Acer last year. HP again grabbed the top spot on the list, maintaining a market share of over 20% for the sixth consecutive quarter.

While Dell regained its position as the second largest vendor of laptops worldwide, its lead over Acer is rather small (about 156,000 units), and with Acer’s fairly recent acquisitions of Gateway and Packard Bell, we can certainly expect to see some fierce competition here. Asus and Apple also saw some interesting growth in Q1. The former saw a whopping 67% increase in shipments year-over-year and moved to number 8 on the list, whereas Apple surged to number 7 after four quarters as the number 8 notebook brand.