Ultra-mobile sales saw an astonishing 3,056 per cent growth in the year up to March 31, and were 70 per cent up on the previous quarter, according to figures released by Displaysearch.

The rise was prompted by the launch of the Asus Eee PC, which was followed by me-too products from the likes of HP, Acer, Gigabyte and MCI.

Displaysearch predicts that sales for 2008 will exceed 13 million worldwide. By comparison total notebook sales for the top nine vendors in the first three months of this year were 31.108 million.

HP remains market leader by a wide margin, selling 20 per cent more(6.46 million) during the quarter than its nearest rival Dell (4.86 million), with Acer third (4.527 million), followed by Lenovo (3.21 million), Toshiba (2.89 million), Fujitsu Seimens (1.61 million) and Apple (1.433million).

Sales of all notebook vendors except Sony showed double-figure growth – 40 per cent for HP, 45 per cent for Dell and 33 per cent for Acer.

Asus registered the largest increase in sales – 67 per cent, thanks to the Eee PC; but resurgent Apple was not far behind at 61 per cent.

Part of the growth in notebook sales can be attributed to a move from desktop to notebook formats. But Displaysearch says HP, Dell and Acer in particular have benefited from strong growth in the small and medium-sized business market.