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As if on cue, here’s some new data research firm Gartner lending credence to Lanci’s boasting. Looks like Acer has leapfrogged over Dell for the number two spot in global market share for the third quarter of 2009, from 12.5 to 15.4 percent of the Big Pie Chart[TM]. Meanwhile Dell is just below at 12.8 percent, and HP is sitting happily atop with a 19.9 percent ownership.

Update: Let us adjust our glasses a bit. According to the charts, Acer is number two in worldwide PC sales, not in US as this previously reported. Stateside, the company is sitting at number three at 13.9 percent, behind HP (25.7 percent) and Dell (26.2 percent). Apologies for the confusion, the person responsible for eyesight has been subsequently sacked, the person responsible for the sacking has been sacked, etc.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Acer fulfills prophecy, overtakes Dell as number two PC maker worldwide (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer’s President Gianfranco Lanci is talking some big talk these days, but not completely without reason. The Taiwan-based computer manufacturer says it does not expect to see a decline in revenue this year over last, meaning that it should clear somewhere in the realm of $17 billion — its 2008 revenue figure. Much of the good news (and sales) hails from Asia, where retail markets have not been as hard hit by the economic insanity of the last year. Moreover, Lanci also said that with these figures, Acer “can finally pass Dell” sometime between this quarter and the next. He also added that the company expects to “breach the gap with HP” when it comes to notebooks, netbooks, and smartphones. So… that means we can expect a ton of Acers this year, right? Right.

Update: Well, that was fast.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Acer: we’ll overtake Dell as world’s number two PC maker… soon originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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World of Goo was one of the best games I played in 2008, bar none. The premise of this clever, gorgeous physics-based puzzler was simple: use tiny, anthropomorphic goo balls to build huge, teetering structures of goo to reach the goal in each level. Though it may not sound it, this was hellishly addictive.

In related news, World of Goo turned one year old today, so the game’s developer 2D Boy is celebrating by selling you the full PC game for whatever you want to pay. A cent. A million bucks. Whatever. In other words, they’ve done a Radiohead.

I paid around $15 for my (Wii) version of World of Goo, but would have paid at least twice that by the time I finished.

Then again, I understand the temptation here. The temptation is to be a tightass and pay a cent for this sublime bit of software. That’s fine. Apparently, 2D Boy wouldn’t mind that. Alternatively, you could not be a jerk, and pay something more deserving, because if any game deserved your support, it’s World of Goo. Whatever you decide to do, go here to get your goo on (though note that the site is currently very shaky).

Oh, and in other related news, 2D Boy has confirmed an iPhone version is in the works:

Hotness!

[Via 2D Boy]

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Toshiba’s beastly Dynabook was last updated in April, but at the time, Toshiba was still walking around with its chin up and refusing to integrate Blu-ray technology into its products. Now, however, the 18.4-inch Qosmio G60 (Dynabook MX in overseas markets) is finally bringing together a Cell-based SpursEngine HD video co-processor with a Blu-ray drive, ensuring oodles of movie watching bliss for those mettlesome enough to lug this thing around. Other specs include a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo P8700 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M GPU, 500GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM, twin TV tuners, Windows 7 Home Premium and a 1080p panel. If all goes well, it’ll ship next month (at least in Japan) for around ¥220,000 ($2,457), though your guess is as good as ours on a US release.

[Via Engadget Japanese]

Filed under: Laptops

Toshiba finally weds SpursEngine and Blu-ray in 18.4-inch Qosmio G60 laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve all been there: our internet connection slows down, and suddenly we’re off doing some murdering. Tsch. Us gamers just can’t seem to help it.

That is, if you believe Sweden’s Metro newspaper. According to the Scandinavian rag, an 18-year-old StarCraft player was made so angry by his internet connection dropping when he tried to play the acclaimed RTS online that he went outside and stabbed a 15-year-old girl.

That’s it. The only reason behind this attack was a slow internet connection and an inability to play StarCraft. No other issues there at all. Nosirree.

Apparently, the unnamed gamer picked up a kitchen knife and headed into the street, and attacked the girl who was “on her way home from a party and laughing with a friend.” And all because of evil games. Thankfully, the girl’s injuries were not life-threatening, but that didn’t stop the troubled teen from being sentenced to psychiatric care for what is his first offense.

AS ENCOURAGED BY STARCRAFT.

[Metro (Swedish), via SK Gaming, via Hot Blooded Gaming, via Kotaku]

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Hey, this is probably surprising to no one, but here we go. A new market research report from DisplaySearch says that the overall mobile PC market is down about 5 percent over last year. The main reason cited for this decline? The increasing popularity of netbooks, which average around $300, and are much, much cheaper than traditional laptops. Netbook revenue is up 264 percent from last year, and have contributed to an overall lowering of the average PC cost by 19 percent. While this is certainly bad news for the PC industry itself, hooray for all of us, right?!

Filed under: Laptops

Cheap netbook sales bringing down laptop revenues, no brainers require no brains originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Oct 2009 07:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If ever a screenshot could be called prescient …

A few weeks back, Australian censorship body the OFLC (here represented by the chap smacking Australia in the gob) refused to classify Left 4 Dead 2, banning the game from being sold anywhere in the country. In the OFLC’s view, the zombie shooter “contains violence that is high in impact and is therefore unsuitable for persons aged under 18 to play.”

Publisher EA and developer Valve are still in the process of appealing this decision, but if that falls through (a verdict is due on October 22), Valve has a solution: censor the hell out of its game.

Valve’s Gabe Newell has revealed that a heavily edited version of Left 4 Dead 2 has now been submitted, and has passed the OFLC test gaining an MA15+ rating. Says Newell:

“We think Left 4 Dead 2 is a lot of fun. It’s a game for adults. But we’re aware that different countries have different restrictions, and we want to make the choices that make the game the most fun for that country.”

As it turns out, some big cuts have been made in this sanitized version. News.com.au reports that the OFLC found “the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment.”

So Left 4 Dead 2 WILL be coming out in Oz now, though it’s likely to be a nicer, less gory version, with more kittens or something. The original build could still make it out, but we won’t know until a decision is made on EA and Valve’s appeal. It’s plain which version Valve want to see released, and Newell was quite clear about this:

“Our goal is not to ship this second version. The goal, of course, is to get the original version through the Board via the appeal process. If that fails, then the edited version is the back-up plan.”

Obviously, the elephant in the room is the OFLC’s inefficient rating system. Australia desperately needs an R18 classification for games, and until that happens, expect this story to be repeated again and again.

[News.com.au, via VG247]

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It’s been done before by the likes of MSI and HP, but given the finger-friendly nature of Windows 7, we aren’t shocked at all to hear that Gateway’s getting in on the action. The splotchy PC maker is unveiling the One ZX lineup tonight, which will initially be comprised of the ZX6800 series and ZX4800 series. Both crews will ship with Win7, and Gateway’s hoping that you’ll fall in love with its custom suite of multitouch-supporting media management tools. If you’re curious about specs, the ZX6810-01 will include a 23-inch multitouch LCD (1,920 x 1,080), 2.33GHz Core 2 Quad Q8200S CPU, 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4670 GPU, 8GB of DDR3 memory, an 8x slot-loading DVD burner, a 1TB HDD (or 64GB SSD), WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, six USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA socket, bundled wireless keyboard and mouse, integrated HD webcam, a hybrid TV tuner and built-in speakers. The lower-end ZX4800-02 steps down to a 20-inch LCD (1,600 x 900), a 2.1GHz T4300 CPU, GMA X4500HD integrated graphics, 4GB of DDR2 RAM and a 750GB SATA HDD. Both lineups should be in US stores later this fall, with prices starting at $1,399.99 and $749.99, respectively.

Filed under: Desktops

Gateway introduces One ZX series of multitouch all-in-one desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no easy way to say this so we’ll just spit it out: Mac owners are bigger gadget nerds than PC owners. At least that’s the conclusion drawn in NPD‘s 2009 Household Penetration Study. NPD concludes that Mac owners not only own more computers than the norm, they also own more types of consumer electronics — the average Apple household owns 48 consumer electronics devices compared to 24 in the average computer household. In fact, NPD suggests that “Apple household owners’ actions and purchases can be used by the industry as leading indicators for hot new products and adoption.” Unfortunately, there’s no direct mention of Linux PC owners because they usually still live with their parents. Oh!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

NPD: Mac owners are bigger gadget nerds than PC owners originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is anybody out there still boycotting Left 4 Dead 2? If so, two things:

1. You’re ridiculous.
2. Valve intends to test your resistance with the mother of all marketing campaigns.

That’s right: Valve has announced it’ll be spending a cool $25 million pushing the sequel to its utterly brilliant zombie co-op shooter.

That means billboards, banner ads on gaming sites, and televised advertisements that run during Monday Night Football and UFC events. Noice. Over in Europe, there’ll be more of everything, with extra print, television, and website ads. In Australia, that means … oh.

Anyway, I guess we can put all of this down to the wild success of the first game, which is fast approaching 3 million sales on all formats, largely thanks to a glowing critical reception and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Left 4 Dead 1’s ad budget of $10 million is dwarfed by the campaign for the follow-up, and I for one am glad to see the game getting the big push it deserves.

[Via press release]

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