The top five notebook manufacturers in 2006 wi9ll be Acer, Dell, HP, Toshiba and Lenova according to the latest research. Bringing up the tail will ASUS, Samsung, LG, Sony and BenQ.

The top-five notebook vendors, Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Acer, Toshiba and Lenovo (formerly IBM) are expected to grab a combined 70.5% share of the global notebook market in 2006, up from 60.1% in 2004, according to statistics compiled by Taiwan’s first-tier notebook manufacturers Among those set to miss out are ASUS branded notebooks who in Australia have concentrated on buying market share via resellers along with Samsung, Sony and LG.

Next year, total notebook shipments from the five companies may reach 55 million units, up 87% from 29.45 million units in 2004, the statistics show.Since Dell won back its leading spot in the global notebook market in 2004, the vendor should maintain its top position this year and in 2006, Taiwan notebook makers expect. In 2003, HP outpaced Dell, which was the world’s largest notebook vendor between 2001 and 2002, by 1.6-percentage points, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Dell is expected to ship 14-15 million notebooks in 2006, followed by HP with 12-13 million units, Acer with 11 million, Toshiba with 8.5-9 million and Lenovo with 8-8.5 million, the makers forecast.

Taiwan notebook makers believe they will benefit from the key vendors’ increasing share of the global notebook market, but expressed concern that the trend has become a challenge to Intel, which reportedly intends to revive the clone notebook market by forming the Mobile Alliance with ODM players Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, and Asustek Computer and distribution partner Synnex Technology International.

According to several resellers brands like ASUS, LG, Samsung, Sony and BenQ are going to struggle to grab share as the five leaders discount prosducts to increase market share.