PC shipments grew 7.6 % in Q3 of 2010: Gartner

Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 88.3 million units in the third quarter of current year, a 7.6 percent increase from the third quarter of 2009, according to preliminary results by Gartner. These third quarter results were below Gartner's earlier market outlook. Gartner had expected third quarter PC shipments to grow 12.7 percent.

HP remained in the top worldwide position but it experienced a slight decline in shipments in the quarter. It experienced a 20 percent decline in shipments in Asia/Pacific as the company put a higher priority on profits in the region. In the US, the company was impacted by weak consumer growth.

Acer experienced a shipment decline of 1.7 percent in the third quarter. Dell showed solid growth across most regions. Overall, Dell benefited from the professional PC market refresh, but North America showed disappointing results. Lenovo showed the strongest growth among the top five vendors worldwide.

The professional PC market helped boost Lenovo's growth in the US and EMEA.

In Asia/Pacific, PC shipments reached 29.7 million units in the third quarter of 2010, a 10.5 percent increase from the third quarter of 2009. In the emerging markets, mobile PC demand in the consumer segment continued to grow unabated as mainstream notebooks continue to appeal to first-time PC buyers as well as those substituting notebooks for desktops. PC shipments in China in the third quarter of 2010 held steady at 62 percent of all PCs shipped in Asia/Pacific, growing 11.3 percent over the same quarter last year.