Acer trumps Asus as netbook king

Numbers for the third quarter of 2008 have arrived, and Acer's Aspire One has overtaken Asus' Eee PC as top dog in sales.

According to LAPTOP's Joanna Stern, Acer has captured 38.3 percent of the market share, selling 2.15 million netbooks. Comparatively, Asus has sold about 1.7 million, which amounts to 30.3 percent of the market. Together, Acer and Asus have a strangehold on the market.

(Check out John Morris' top netbook picks of 2008 to see what else is out there, including netbooks from Samsung, Dell, MSI, HP and more.)

What's that mean? Netbooks are hot, hot, hot -- even if some people don't dig the form factor. Couple that news with ruthless price cuts -- including a subsidized $99 Acer netbook, in fact -- and we've got some real competition on our hands.