HP, Lenovo Gain PC Market Share

While Dell continued to show significant declines in shipments and market share during the second quarter, the firms said, much of it was attributable to weakness in sales to U.S. consumers. Dell took steps to fix that last month by reaching a deal with Wal-Mart to sell its PCs in 3,000 of the megaretailers stores in North America, but sales through Wal-Mart started too late in the quarter to make a big difference in market share. Dell remained the No. 1 PC maker in U.S. market share, according to Gartner and IDC.

Gartner put Dell's U.S. market share at 29.9 percent, down from 35.7 percent from the year-ago quarter, while HP's U.S. market share registered at 25.1 percent, up from 21.1 percent for the same quarter a year ago.

Overall, Gartner said it measured 11.7 percent growth in global PC shipments last quarter. IDC said worldwide PC shipment growth was 12.5 percent.

"Mobile PC demand remained strong, while Vista's impact on consumer demand is considered to have been minimal," Gartner said in a press release. Gartner said Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP's market share worldwide was 18.2 percent, ahead of Dell's 15 percent worldwide market share.

"HP grew faster than the worldwide market average growth rate for the ninth quarter in a row," Gartner said. "HP showed steady growth across all regions and platforms."

The other big winner in the quarter, Lenovo, Raleigh, N.C., leapfrogged over rival Acer of Taipei, Taiwan, in worldwide market share by shipping 4.9 million units during the period to 4.3 million for Acer, according to IDC, Framingham, Mass. IDC said Lenovo had "a very solid quarter."