PC Sales Up 2.4 Percent in Q2 - Give or Take

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Gartner announced PC sales worldwide grew by 2.3 percent in the second quarter from the second quarter of 2010, with total sales of more than 85.2 million units.

That was a marked decrease from the analyst firm’s earlier predictions of 6.7 percent growth for the quarter.

Beyond that, however, Gartner’s figures were, in fact, very similar to numbers also announced this week by analyst firm IDC, which said that worldwide PC sales increased 2.6 percent during the second calendar quarter.

That’s just down slightly from IDC’s May projections for the quarter of 2.9 percent PC sales growth. Overall, IDC said OEMs sold 84.4 million units in the quarter.

Both analyst firms had the same PC vendors pegged as leading the pack, with the first three places in the same order — HP, Dell, and Lenovo.

The similarities don’t stop there.

According to Gartner, HP shipped 14.9 million PCs in the quarter, followed by Dell with 10.6 million, and Lenovo with 10.2 million.

In comparison, IDC had HP selling some 15.3 million PCs, with Dell selling 10.9 million, and Lenovo with 10.3 million.

Indeed, the two firms even had the vendors with similar global market shares.

For instance, Gartner gave HP 17.5 percent share worldwide, and IDC gave it a nearly identical 18.1 percent. Likewise, Gartner said Dell’s share was 12.5 percent, while IDC claimed 12.9 percent, and Lenovo was even closer — Gartner said 12.0 percent compared to 12.2 for IDC.

Meanwhile, in fourth place, according to Gartner, Acer sold 9.3 million PCs during the quarter for 10.9 percent share. IDC, on the other hand, said Acer sold 9.2 million and also had a market share of 10.9 percent.

Finally, in fifth place, Gartner pegged Asus with sales of 4.5 million units versus IDC, also with 4.5 million. Gartner gave Asus 5.2 percent market share, while IDC ranked the vendor with 5.3 percent.

Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @stuartj1000.