Worldwide PC Sales Up 20 Pct in Second Quarter

New figures from Garner show worldwide PC sales were up 20 pct in the second quarter of 2010.

Market analysis firm Gartner has released its figures for worldwide PC sales during the second quarter of 2010, and the results show Acer continuing to stay ahead of Dell for the number-two PC maker worldwide…although Hewlett-Packard still maintains a strong lead. Perhaps as significant, however, is that Asus has managed to knock Toshiba out of the top five PC manufacturers for the quarter, with Asus showing the strongest growth among the top five PC vendors.

“The preliminary second quarter results indicate ongoing improvement of the PC market, and it marks the third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth on a year-over-year basis,” said Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa, in a statement. “End-user spending grew approximately 13 percent in the second quarter. Average selling prices (ASPs) continue to decline, but at a much slower rate compared with the last two years.”

Overall, Gartner says worldwide PC shipments grew 20.7 during the second quarter of 2010, compared to the same quarter a year ago, with a total of 82.9 million using shipped. HP stayed in the top spot with 17.4 percent of the worldwide PC market and year-on-year growth of 12.3 percent—a number which significantly underperformed compared to the overall year-on-year growth in the market. Acer say its share jump from 12 percent last year to 13 percent this year, but in terms of units shipped the company saw a 31.6 percent year-on-year increase. Dell also registered strong year-on-year growth in units shipped—19 percent—although its overall share of the worldwide PC market actually declined 0.2 percent to 12.4 percent. Lenovo saw its share of the worldwide PC market clim from 8.2 percent to 10 percent, while Asus edged out Toshiba for the number five slot, experiencing that strong 78.5 percent year-on-year growth in unit shipments to capture 5.2 percent of the worldwide market.

“The consumer PC market registered double-digit shipment growth, but consumer mobile shipment growth slowed. This was due in part to slower growth of mini-notebooks,” Ms. Kitagawa noted. “Surging popularity of Apple’s iPad temporarily cannibalized mini-notebooks, as well as consumer notebook sales to some degree. It is not certain at this stage if the cannibalization will continue with the current price point of media tablets.”

In the U.S. market, HP continued to hold on the top slot with a 25.7 percent share during the second quarter of 2010, with Dell in a close second place with 23.7 percent of the market. Acer managed a number-three placement with 11.3 percent of the U.S. market during the quarter (that actually represents a slight decline year-on-year), while Apple and Toshiba accounted for 9.8 and 8.7 percent of the U.S. market, respectively. Aside from Acer, all the top five manufacturers saw growth in the U.S. market, although DEll managed only a 10.1 percent year-on-year increase compared to 24.7 percent for Apple and 39.7 percent for Toshiba.