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This growth was driven mostly by a strong demand for mobile computers, with Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer holding on to the top three rankings, respectively.

Global PC shipments rose to 69.9 million units from 62.4 million in the same period a year ago, iSuppli said.

HP boosted its shipments in this quarter by 23 per cent over a year ago to reach 13.2 million units, making it the strongest percentage growth among the top 10 PC makers. HP's market share at the end of the quarter was 18.9 per cent.

Dell increased its shipments by 20 per cent to nearly 9 million units, which gave it a market share of 15 per cent.
And Acer rounded out the top three rankings with a 10.5 per cent boost in shipments to 6.8 million units, or 9.7 per cent of the market.

With the recent acquisitions of Gateway and Packard Bell, Acer has distanced itself from its once close rival Lenovo, and is close to joining HP and Dell as the only computer makers to have more than a 10 per cent market share, iSuppli said.

Lenovo and Toshiba were fourth and fifth in global rankings, with a 6.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent market share respectivley, with Lenovo increasing its shipments by 21.2 per cent and Toshiba by 20.3 per cent.