According to Gartner, notebook sales jumped 43.4% on-year to 49.4 million units during the first quarter of 2010, representing $36 billion in end-user spending and marking the highest growth the mobile PC market has experienced in eight years. Most of that increase stems from consumer purchases, though there was an uptick in business spending - a trend the firm expects to continue through 2011.

Netbook shipments rose 71% year-over-year, though that growth is slowing as folks being to understand that such devices are underpowered compared to increasingly cheaper full-sized notebooks. The average selling price of mobile PCs was $732, down 15% from $868 in 2009.

Although Acer is closing in quickly, HP still claimed the top position, accounting for 19.2% of worldwide laptop shipments. Acer represented 18.5% of the market, and along with Asus, the Taiwanese companies experienced the largest growth rate among the top-tier vendors.

Dell took third place during the first quarter, shipping 11.5% of the world's mobile computers, Toshiba sat in fourth with 9.3% of the market share, and Asus followed with 8.8% - a 113% increase on-year. That left 32.9% of the pie for others, such as Lenovo.