PC sales

Global PC sales sputtered in the second quarter as 85.2 million units were shipped, up just 2.3 percent, according to Gartner. IDC data put shipments growth at 2.6 percent.

Tablets are stealing the demand thunder from PCs and retailers were paring back netbook inventory, according to Gartner and IDC. Corporate sales remained strong. HP is the top PC vendor in the world with 17.5 percent market share, said Gartner in a statement. IDC puts HP at 18.1 percent market share in the second quarter.

While HP is the top dog in PCs it is growing in line with the industry overall. Dell has a similar story.

However, the strong growth rates belong to two companies—Lenovo and Apple.

Lenovo, which is riding a corporate upgrade cycle, had second quarter global market share of 12 percent, just behind Dell at No. 2. Lenovo shipments grew 22.5 percent from a year ago as the company gained two percentage points of market share, based on Gartner figures.

Acer’s market share collapsed as demand for netbooks waned. Acer’s market share fell to 10.9 percent in the second quarter, down from 14 percent a year ago.

As Lenovo shines in Gartner’s worldwide standings, Apple’s growth is dominating the U.S. Apple is the No. 3 PC vendor in the U.S. with 10.7 percent market share in the second quarter, up from 9.3 percent a year ago. Dell was No. 2 with 22.6 percent market share and HP had the top spot with 26.9 percent.

Both IDC and Gartner attributed the anemic PC sales to falling netbook demand and the popularity of tablets.

Here’s Gartner’s global scorecard followed by IDC’s:

And the U.S. figures from Gartner followed by IDC’s: