Second quarter global PC shipments amounted to 67.2 million units, iSuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) said, up 1 percent from the first quarter but down 4.3 percent compared to the second quarter of 2008. Shipments had declined by 14 percent sequentially in the first quarter of 2009 and by 2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the firm.

"PC shipments managed to rise in the second quarter on the back of sequential growth in sales of notebook PCs, despite quarterly declines in desktops," said Matthew Wilkins, iSuppli principal analyst for compute platforms research, in a statement.

Wilkins said iSuppli predicts continued sequential growth in the third and fourth quarters, driven by the gradual improvement of the global economy and technology drivers such as the expected introduction of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. For the year, iSuppli continues to expect a 4 percent decline in PC shipments compared to 2008, he said.

The launch of Windows 7 will be a positive for the PC industry, prompting a huge advertising and media campaign from Microsoft that will put PCs in high-profile positions in mainstream electronic and print media, Wilkins said.

Hewlett-Packard Co. remained the top PC OEM for the 12th successive quarter, holding a second quarter market share of 20 percent, iSuppli said. Dell Inc. and Taiwan's Acer were second and third, with market shares of 13.4 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively, iSuppli said.

"Hewlett-Packard not only is maintaining its leadership position but is also gaining market share due to its robust notebook PC business, which has outgrown the overall notebook segment for the past two quarters," Wilkins said.

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ISuppli is offering a report titled "Touching Bottom? Desktop PCs Convulse and Contract" for sale through the firm's web site.