Tablets, virtualisation and 2010 hangover holding back PC sales

The global PC market grew by 2.6 per cent in the past quarter, just shy of a predicted 2.9 per cent gain, according to new figures from IDC.

The analyst firm said that competition from mobile devices and ongoing economic constraints in Western countries helped to keep the quarterly figures short of its original forecast.

Much of the contraction came from the sub-notebook market. IDC said that sales of netbooks tailed off in the quarter, as consumers moved to mobile devices such as tablets.

The research also found that, in many enterprise environments, the budget for PC hardware has taken a back seat to investment in virtualised environments and cloud computing services.

"These preliminary results continue to reflect pressure from competing consumer and business products as well as cautious spending," said IDC senior research analyst Jay Chou.

"Nevertheless, product refreshes and promotions in the second half of the year, as well as easier year-ago data, should boost growth."

IDC also identified an ongoing market "hangover" as sales figures eased back from a spike in the first half of 2010.

HP held on to the top spot in terms of PC sales, logging an 18.1 per cent share and sales growth of three per cent. Dell claimed the second spot with a 12.9 per cent share and 2.8 per cent growth on the quarter.

Lenovo was by far the biggest mover in the quarter, however, picking up 12.2 per cent of the market thanks to an ongoing expansion plan that saw sales rise by 22.9 per cent.

Lenovo's gain came at the expense of Acer, which saw its share dwindle to 10.9 per cent as sales dropped 10.1 per cent from the same quarter a year ago, in part down to the decline in netbooks.

Asus rounded out the top five with a 5.3 per cent slice of the market.