Hewlett-Packard still number one PC manufacturer but Acer close on its heels . - According to US consultants Gartner, the Taiwan PC manufacturer, Acer, had more product volume in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, overtaking Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the first quarter of 2010 Acer produced 5.789 million units (+53.6% over a year), slightly more than its US rival. At a global level, HP remains top in market share with 18.2% in the first quarter 2010 (15.3 million units sold) as opposed to 14.2% for Acer (12 million units sold), which hauls it up into second place above Dell, which is in third place and goes down a notch with global market share of 12.1% for 10.2 million units sold. This is significant progress insofar as the difference between HP and Acer was still 4 percentage points a year ago (1st quarter of 2009). Lenovo is in fourth place (8.3% of market share; 7 million units sold), Asus and Toshiba are in fifth position (5.5%; 4.6 million in market share each). The key to Acer's success can be located in the very low structure costs that enable it to practise a very aggressive price policy. Its production is completely sub-contacted out, mainly in China (90%) and its distribution network is ultra-light. The group only has around 6,000 working for it throughout the world and had a turnover of 17.9 billion in 2009. (I.L./transl.fl)