Dell was able to regain its second place position in the global PC market as sales of Apple’s iPad pushed down Acer’s netbook and notebook sales immensely. According to a report on Thursday from market tracker iSuppli, Dell was back to its original 2nd place position in the fourth quarter of 2010 after trailing behind Acer at the third place for quite some time. Dell’s gain to the company’s solid sales in the enterprise market and the attack by iPad and other tablets on the consumer netbook market contributed to its reprisal, according to analysts. Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst at iSuppli stated that Dell has now regained a firm hold on the No. 2 rank after holding the No. 3 position for around a year behind Acer, due to a delay and decline in shipments.

Wilkins adds that with the strength of the strong sales of netbook PCs to consumers and a usually buoyant consumer market, Acer was able to surge ahead to the No. 2 position in the third quarter of 2009. Acer’s gains have been reversed with a decrease in the momentum for consumer PCs and due to growing competition with other media tablets. Compared to the sales in the third quarter of 2010, Dell’s fourth quarter sales were smooth, according to ISuppli. A 12.9% drop in Acer’s shipments quarter over quarter pushed Dell ahead. Meanwhile, the top position in the worldwide PC market has been maintained by Hewlett-Packard.

When the netbook market was becoming one of the hottest areas in the technology segment, Acer benefitted immensely. Acer has been big on the scene since the mid of 2008. Acer was apparently betting heavily while PC rivals HP and Dell also treaded in the netbook industry with cautious moves. Tablets like the extremely popular Apple iPad have been clobbering the PC market and that is the biggest problem for netbooks right now.

It was reported earlier this month that consumers were losing interest in the smaller netbook and also their larger counterparts, the laptops, according to a report from analysts at the market research firm, Gartner. Gartner lowered its PC sales forecast for both the years 2011 and 2012 as it is expecting the tablets to have a massive effect on the PC market. The PC market had been considered unparalleled and unchallenged by many people in the industry.

Consumer and enterprise demand for the laptop has driven the PC market forward massively since the past several years. The PC market is currently being boosted by the traditional counterpart of the laptop, the desktop as there is a significant decline in the interest for purchasing laptops in the industry. Wilkins adds that there was a strong corporate demand for desktops and it has influenced positive sales for desktops in the fourth quarter. As companies keep replacing systems with newer, faster and more efficient computers, the corporate PC segment continues to outperform the consumer market in a significant manner.