Research firm Gartner has released its third quarter 2008 results for the personal computer market, showing that in the US, Apple shipments exceeded Acer, the company with the biggest growth in worldwide market share.

Globally, the Acer brand, which now includes Gateway, Packard Bell, and eMachines,shipped 47.3% more hardware than last year's third quarter, growing its market share by nearly 3%, the largest improvement of the top-selling brands. Gartner research shows that Asus and Acer were the two vendors who have expanded their market share the most through the popularity of netbooks. Overall, PC shipments increased by 15%.

In the United States, Apple saw the biggest increase in shipments, moving 29.4% more computers this year than it did during the same period last year. The company thus grew its market share by just under 2%.

In yesterday's notebook unveiling event, Apple's Tim Cook said that Macs comprised 17.6% of the United States' market share. Granted, this statistic was presented in Apple's somewhat nebulous "Mac vs. PC" context, where the rest of the pie chart was labeled only as "PC," (essentially meaning "everybody else"). From the beginning of the year to the close of Q3, Cook said that the total Mac units sold has reached 7.1 million.

Gartner statistics say that Apple moved 1.64 million units in the third quarter.

Acer's shipments, meanwhile, increased by 11.2% in the US, just behind Apple in domestic growth. With 8.9% of the United States market share, the company has a long way to go before it can compete with Dell's nearly 30% reach. Dell remains the dominant force in the US, shipping 5.1 million units in the third quarter.