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PC shipments worldwide reached 61.1 million units in the second quarter of 2007. There was an 11.7 percent increase from the same period last year according to Gartner.

"The PC market experienced a boost from better than expected sales in the United States, Asia/Pacific and Latin America," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner's Client Computing Markets group.

"The U.S. deskbased PC market beat our expectations, due in part to higher than expected sales in the professional market. In the Asia/Pacific region, China and South East Asia saw strong shipment growth."

Mobile PC demand was strong, while Vista's impact on consumer demand was minimal. Hewlett-Packard remained the No.1 vendor based on PC shipments and had 18.2 percent of global shipments. HP grew faster than the world market average for the ninth quarter in a row.

In the U.S. market, PC shipments hit 15.7 million units in the second quarter of 2007. This was a 5.9 percent increase from the second quarter of 2006. Gartner had previously estimated growth of 3.2 percent.

Dell kept its No.1 position in the U.S. market even though its growth was below the U.S. average in the second quarter. "Dell had difficulties in its consumer business. Dell made its first major retail shipments to Wal-Mart stores, however volumes were not significant enough to influence its growth performance in the quarter," Ms. Kitagawa said.