Five Companies That Dropped The Ball This Week

HP Loses PC Crown To Lenovo

Hewlett-Packard has finally surrendered its top spot in the global PC market, being edged out by Lenovo 15.7 percent to 15.5 percent in Gartner's third-quarter figures. It's the first time since 2006 that HP hasn't been atop the worldwide PC market.

HP, in a statement sent to media, pointed to IDC's figures, which still rank HP No. 1 at 15.9 percent.

"The Gartner numbers only represent a portion of the PC marketplace. IDC, which does represent the entire marketplace, ranks HP as the leader in worldwide PC shipments," an HP spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "IDC includes workstations in their data, so we consider this a more complete view of the market."

Translation: Nothing to see here, people.

Huawei Future In U.S. Murky After 'National Security Threat' Report

Huawei's partners are probably dazed in the wake of a House Intelligence Committee report that labeled their vendor partner a "national security threat" and advised against dealing with it and Chinese mobile equipment vendor ZTE.

"I would find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property, if you care about your consumers' privacy, and you care about the national security of the United States of America," Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on "60 Minutes" last Sunday.

Huawei is building a channel program and is said to be preparing for an IPO, but this bombshell of a week may have derailed these plans.

Microsoft Czech Republic Exec Stumbles On Office For Mobile

Microsoft is refuting a claim from one of its Office product managers that it is getting ready to unveil Office for the two largest smartphone platforms on the market. Speaking at a conference, Petr Bobek, a product manager with Microsoft's Czech Republic division, said Microsoft would release native Office apps for Android and iOS next year, according to a report from The Verge.

The Verge also got its hands on a press release outlining Microsoft's plan to offer Office 2013 to business customers in December, followed by a mobile version in March. However, Microsoft says the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding.

"The information shared by our Czech subsidiary is not accurate," Microsoft told The Verge in a statement, adding its by-now customary "We do not have anything further to share at this time."

RIM Expected To Delay BlackBerry 10 Release Until March

The Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" took a comically long time to come to fruition, and RIM's BlackBerry 10 is starting to bear some similarities.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek says the BlackBerry 10 launch, originally expected in January, has been delayed until March, in what amounts to the latest dose of bad news for the struggling handset maker.

"Management has been silent as to the timing of the launch within [calendar year quarter one] but we believe plans for a Jan. launch have now been pushed back until March, which means BB10 will miss RIM's [February quarter]," Misek said in the research note.

Apple Stung By Court Reversal Of Samsung Nexus Sales Ban

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reversed an earlier ruling that banned sales of Samsung's Nexus Android smartphone. The ruling is not part of the $1.05 billion patent infringement ruling Apple won in August, but according to a report from Reuters, it could make it difficult for vendors to seek sales injunctions of products in the future. So while this doesn't seem like a big deal for Apple, it could present issues for the company in its next patent battle.