Asia PC shipments up 36pct to 27m in Q2

PC shipments in Asia rose by 36 per cent from a year earlier to 27 million units in the second quarter of this year, research firm IDC said on Tuesday, helped by stronger-than-expected desktop PC shipments.

Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's No 4 PC brand, led with a 20 per cent share of all shipments in the April-June quarter, helped by a strong performance in its fast-growing home market China.

"Heavy demand for notebooks will still be a key driver in coming years despite potential competitive pressure coming from media tablets like Apple Inc's iPad," IDC analyst Bryan Ma said in a statement.

Lenovo has been trying to return to its roots as an emerging markets specialist after it struggled to integrate overseas-focused assets it acquired when it bought International Business Machines Corp's laptop PC unit in 2005.

Strong demand for desktop PCs in Asia would be in line with trends in Europe and the Americas, where corporate demand for these computers helped PC companies ship 22.4 per cent more computers in the second quarter.

Benefitting from this return in corporate demand was the world's No 3 PC brand Dell Inc, which saw the number of units it shipped rise 55 per cent and outperform the overall market's 36 per cent climb.

Global leader Hewlett-Packard Co came in second, taking 11.6 per cent of all Asian PC shipments in the second quarter. However, it was the only brand to see unit shipments fall, recording a 3 per cent decline from the year before.

Netbook PC pioneer Asustek Computer Inc of Taiwan saw the biggest gains in shipment numbers among the top five, with year-on-year unit growth surging 84 per cent as consumers continue to lap up the company's low-cost netbook PCs.