Shipments of PCs worldwide fell five per cent year on year, less than was expected earlier in the summer, according to analyst Gartner.

Global PC shipments totalled 68.1 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a five per cent decline from the second quarter of 2008. In June, Gartner had forecast second quarter PC shipments to decline 9.8 per cent.

“Though the market was still in decline, the better-than-expected results can be interpreted as a small sign of a PC market recovery in terms of shipment volumes in some regions," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.

"PC shipments in Asia/Pacific and the US were better than our expectation, while shipments in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region indicated ongoing weakness.”

HP led the recovery with almost 20 per cent market share and shipment growth was ahead of the worldwide average, thanks to aggressive pricing.

Dell and Acer once again effectively tied for second position in the global market, though on the revenue side Dell’s share was expected to be much higher than Acer’s because Acer’s shipments were mainly fuelled by low-cost systems.

Lenovo, with 8.4 per cent of market share, was driven by strong shipment growth in Asia/Pacific, while shipments in the US and EMEA were below the regional averages.

PC shipments in the US totalled 16.4 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a decline of 1.2 per cent from the second quarter of 2008, beating Gartner’s expectation of a 12 per cent year-on-year decline.

The EMEA PC market had a double-digit decline for the second quarter in a row. PC shipments in EMEA totalled 20.6 million units, a 10.9 per cent decrease from the same period in 2008.

"The EMEA PC market in the second quarter of 2009 saw continued weakening," said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst for Gartner’s Client Computing Markets group in EMEA.

"Despite some return to seasonality trends, the EMEA PC market has not bottomed out yet."

PC shipments in Asia/Pacific registered 20.5 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 2.3 per cent increase from the second quarter of 2008. This is the first positive growth indicator after two quarters of negative shipments, driven by growing demand in China, where the PC market grew seven per cent in the quarter.