Hewlett-Packard claimed the largest share of the world PC market, with unit shipments rising 37 per cent, according to data from researchers Gartner and IDC.

Rival Dell Inc, which Hewlett-Packard ousted as the top PC maker about a year ago, saw its shipments drop about 5 per cent in the quarter.

After dropping to fourth place in the previous quarter, Lenovo Group Ltd reclaimed the No 3 slot from rival Acer Inc in a close battle. Toshiba Corp lagged at fifth in the world, according to the research firms.

Both firms said that the growth was faster than expected. While notebooks sales were strong, analysts with IDC and Gartner said that the decline in desktop shipments was not as sharp as they had expected.

IDC researcher David Daoud said he was expecting 11.7 per cent growth in shipments and the figure came in at 12.5 per cent, according to his firm's preliminary calculations.

It is too early to see whether efforts to turn around Dell are paying off, he said. Founder Michael Dell took back the CEO job in January in a bid to revitalize the company.

"When you go through monumental structural changes with a new management team looking for new strategies it takes a while to get to where you want to be," Daoud said.

Gartner estimated that some 61 million machines were shipped during the quarter, while IDC placed the number at about 59 million.

While Taiwan-based Acer ranks behind China's Lenovo, whose portfolio includes the former PC business of IBM, there was a big discrepancy in the growth rates of the two PC companies.

Acer's sales soared about 55 per cent, the fastest of the top five PC makers, according to the two research firms, while rival Lenovo, grew about 22 per cent.

Gartner researcher Mika Kitagawa attributed Acer's strength to growth in the small business sector, where it offers low-priced PCs through resellers that are able to generate decent profits on those products.