Quietly, perhaps TOO quietly, Taiwanese hardware maker Acer claimed the No. 2 position in the worldwide PC market this week — at least for the third quarter and at least according to research firm iSuppli. Actually, there was earlier news to this effect in October, but this is another validation.

There is one fundamental factor for Acer’s rise, which bears close attention as the economy attempts to pick itself up out of this wretched recession: its success with netbooks.

Even if you have absolutely no interest in buying a netbook for yourself, this form factor is really interesting for two reasons:

1. They allow people who never before could have had their OWN notebook or PC to have access to computing power. Just last night, I was over at a friend’s house. They already own two PCs and are thinking about a netbook for under the Christmas tree so that all three of their kids can be working/playing at once. When I think about the possibilities for education, I get really choked up. And this is just the U.S. market: imagine where these things are having an impact globally.
2. Netbooks and thin clients in general are starting to get the attention of IT solution providers who have long been out of the client hardware business. I had lunch with a serious server VAR in New Jersey just before Thanksgiving. He now views thin clients as a very logical extension to his existing integration business, whereas just a year ago, this wouldn’t have really been a consideration.