San Francisco, Apr 13 (IANS): Worldwide PC shipments reached 69.9 million units in the first quarter of this year, a growth of 32 per cent from the first quarter of 2020, according to Gartner.

The top three vendors in the worldwide PC market remained unchanged from the previous quarter, with Lenovo maintaining the top spot by shipments, said the report.

All of the top six vendors experienced double-digit growth, and all, except Dell, gained market share compared to a year ago

"This growth should be viewed in the context of two unique factors: comparisons against a pandemic-constrained market and the current global semiconductor shortage," Mikako Kitagawa, Research Director at Gartner.

"Without the shipment chaos in early 2020, this quarter's growth may have been lower. However, semiconductor shortages are now adversely affecting the supply chain once again, with shipment lead times for some PCs extending to as long as four months."

While Gartner does not include Chromebooks in its traditional PC market results, Chromebook shipments grew by triple digits in the first quarter of 2021, compared to a year ago, with growth primarily driven by investment among educational institutions in North America.

Including Chromebooks, the total worldwide PC market grew 47 per cent year-over-year, Gartner said.

Lenovo recorded a 42.3 per cent year-over-year growth, the highest among the among top six vendors.

In contrast to HP and Dell, Lenovo increased shipments of deskbased PCs, largely due to high demand in China.

The company grew faster than the regional average in all key regions, with particularly strong growth in Asia Pacific.

It also also appeared to be more in control of their supply chain, as a higher percentage of its PCs are manufactured in-house compared to other vendors.

After two consecutive quarters of decline, HP achieved strong year-over-year growth of 34.6 per cent.

HP continued to gain traction in Latin America, recording over 60 per cent year-over-year growth in the region.

However, it should be noted that HP's strong growth is attributed in part to a significant decline in 1Q20, as HP was the hardest hit by the supply chain disruption among of the top three vendors at the time, Gartner said.

Dell which occupied the third position in terms of market share experienced the slowest growth among the top six vendors, largely due to the company's focus on the business PC market, which did not experience as much growth as the robust consumer PC market.

In light of component shortages and increasing freight costs, the company also pulled away from low-margin consumer products more than ever before.

Apple, Acer Group and ASUS ranked fourth, fifth and sixth in the list of top players in terms of worldwide PC shipments in Q1 of 2021.