PC Sales Up 17 Pct, Apple Grows Most

Two firms said that PC shipments in the second quarter of this year outpaced expectations, with IDC reporting a 16.6 percent increase and Gartner 14.8 percent. Driving the demand was strong sales of budget PCs, laptops and corporations upgrading company computers.

The difference in the totals comes from different methodologies that the two companies use in calculating PC shipments.

"This kind of growth in the PC market is just amazing," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "At some point, we expect the flood of consumer and portable demand to let up, but so far falling prices and demand across regions and market segments continues to support growth."

Worldwide, Dell led all manufacturers in market share in the quarter with 19.3 percent, up just over a percent from a year ago. Shipments increased 23.7 percent to sit at 8.98 miliion PCs.

HP came in second with 15.6 percent market share. Shipments increased 16 percent with 7.25 million PCs sold and shipped during the quarter.

Rounding out the top five were Lenovo (formerly IBM) with 7.6 percent, which IDC said was working through any merger issues "fairly well", Acer with 4.4 percent, and Fujitsu/Siemens with a 3.7 percent market share.

In the US, Apple grew the fastest of all computer makers, posting a 37 percent increase in sales during the quarter, good enough to give it a 4.5 percent market share.

IDC lent some credence to the idea of an iPod "halo effect," saying in the report that the music player, as well as the Mac Mini, are benefiting Macintosh sales.

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