to third place, came back in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to a report Thursday from market tracker IHS iSuppli. Analysts credited 's gain to the company's strong sales in the enterprise market, as well as the and other tablets hammering the consumer space.

"A little more than one year after a prolonged decline in shipments caused Dell to lose its customary second-place ranking to rival Acer, Dell now seems to have regained a firm hold on the No. 2 rank," said Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst at iSuppli, in a statement. "Acer in the third quarter of 2009 had surged to the No. 2 spot on the strength of its strong sales of netbook PCs to consumers and a generally buoyant consumer market. However, with momentum for consumer PCs waning and in light of growing competition from media tablets, Acer's gains have been reversed."

ISuppli noted that Dell's fourth-quarter sales were flat compared to the third quarter. What pushed Dell ahead was a 12.9% drop in Acer's shipments quarter over quarter.

Hewlett-Packard, meanwhile, remains at the top of the worldwide PC market.

As far back as mid-2008, on the netbook market, which had become a hot technology. While PC rivals and Dell also ventured into netbooks, Acer seemed to bet more heavily.