The number of laptops sent from producer to retailer fell by 13.9 per cent worldwide over the period, while volumes of desktop computers shipped dropped by 7.4 per cent, according to estimates by Canalys analyst firm.

Year-on-year, PC shipments to European, Middle Eastern and African markets showed a decline of three per cent. Western Europe in particular proved challenging for vendors, with a decrease of 10 per cent over the year.

Volumes to the Asia Pacific region declined 0.5% year-on-year to just over 40 million units, with figures for the region affected by a six per cent fall in shipments to China, which accounted for almost 45 per cent of the Asian market.

Apple remained the top PC vendor for the quarter, with a 17.1 per cent market share with over 18.5 million units. This is a 4.5 million unit lead over Lenovo, its closest competitor in the market, but still a dip from the 19 per cent market share the Californian company enjoyed in the second quarter of 2012.

Lenovo, the Chinese multinational, gained market share in notebook and desktop PC shipments over the quarter. It also bucked trends by reporting strong annual growth in EMEA (34 per cent), the US (28 per cent) and especially Latin America (93 per cent) and performed well on the tablet side of its business, where it shipped an estimated 1.5 million units.

“It is striking how successful it has been in globalising its PC business and breaking the one million unit barrier is an important milestone for its tablet shipments,” said James Wang, an analyst with Canalys.

“Lenovo is on an upward curve with its tablets, expanding in mainland China and Latin America, where there is little competition from the likes of Google or Amazon. (TheTelegraph)