When Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) reported Q3 numbers last week, the market was underwhelmed by the computer maker's results. Dell, in the midst of staging a comeback under founder and CEO Michael Dell, missed earnings by a penny. Although this was the first solid quarter of honest-to-goodness results after a string of quarterly "preliminary" results due to an accounting scandal, the market didn't let up. Missing estimates by even a penny can be disastrous in the short term.

Well, larger competitor Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) continues to add to that misery, as research firm iSuppli recently stated that the Palo Alto, Calif., company increased its market share over rival Dell in the third quarter of the calendar year. Adding insult to injury, Taiwanese computer maker Acer stole the number two spot in laptop sales away from Dell in the Q3 period as well, after completing its acquisition of the Gateway brand in the same quarter.

According to iSuppli, Hewlett-Packard took home 19.2% of all computer shipments in the third quarter, widening its lead against Dell's 14.6% share. In 2006's Q3 period, the difference was 16.5% for HP compared to 16.3% for Dell. My, what one year can do. Dell, ever one to control internal costs, let that one area get out of hand in its Q3 period and that dented its profit even as revenues grew. With laptop PCs continuing to grow way faster in unit shipments than desktop PCs, and with a resurgent Acer not giving an inch, it's going to be one large, uphill battle for Dell from here on.

To those who say "the PC is dead" (umm, not really), to the commodity experts who treat the personal computer market like the FCOJ or pork bellies market, where is the next decade of PC growth going to come from?

I would venture to guess, based on industry estimates, that the majority of U.S. households these days have more than one PC. For Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Lenovo, Acer and other PC makers, it's pretty well-known by now that a vast market remains untapped in areas outside the U.S.

To that end, it's been said that up to 40% of small businesses in India are expected to start investing in PC technology in the next twelve months. The trick here is that for most of these businesses, this will be the first time ever they invest in the personal computer and related markets. That's right, it's 2007 and almost half of the small business market in India is expected to engage themselves in PC technology for the first time ever.

Will this send sales execs from HP and Dell into the stratosphere? Probably not, as these individuals know their markets, customers and potential sales powder kegs just as well as anyone. For internet companies like Google and Yahoo!, opening up the possible internet-connected floodgates of India (which has a billion+ population) would be a good thing as well. PCs this day and age without an internet connection are useless for any kind of global business transactions. Yes, these smaller businesses in India may not be there yet, but in a decade, many of them will be global businesses. PC technology will help them all launch, and PC makers will be the ones seeing visions of sugar plums dancing in their own heads as those global sales continue to mount.