The report from Gartner, released Wednesday, that Hewlett-Packard had regained its first-place position for computers shipped worldwide in 2007, with Dell coming in second. In 2006, both companies had been in a virtual tie for first.

HP in Solid No.1

HP landed at No. 1 with nearly 50 million units shipped, which accounted for 18.2 percent of PC shipments -- a result of a 30 percent growth over 2006. HP had a "solid No. 1 position" and the strongest growth among the top five PC vendors in the fourth quarter, Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner's Client Markets group, said in a statement.

Dell posted a 14.3 percent market share, and Acer, in third place, had 8.9 percent. The next two positions in the Gartner report were occupied by Lenovo, with 7.4 percent, and Toshiba at 4 percent.

The Gartner report noted that Dell's growth was only 1.7 percent for 2007, in part because of the company's reorganization, but by the fourth quarter Dell's worldwide PC shipment grew by 17 percent. The report said the fourth-quarter results were driven by Dell's retail and channel partner expansion.

Acer's growth, notably in consumer mobile PCs in the combined Europe-Middle East-Africa region and the United States, was boosted by its acquisition of Gateway's consumer business. The Gartner report cited Lenovo for a "relatively good performance" despite a weak consumer market presence. Lenovo has embarked on a campaign to increase its market presence and brand recognition.

PC shipments overall grew by 13.4 percent in 2007 over the previous year, and about 271 million units were sold during the year. Nearly 76 million units shipped in the fourth quarter alone accounted for a 13.1 percent increase over the same quarter in 2006.

The IDC Report

The IDC report, also released on Wednesday, painted a similar picture, with worldwide PC shipments growing by 15.5 percent in the fourth quarter and 269 million units shipped in 2007, for an annual growth of 14.3 percent. The IDC report had the same order as Gartner for the computer makers in the global market. Both IDC and Gartner showed the top five vendors in the United States to be, in order, Dell, HP, Acer, Apple and Toshiba.

The IDC report noted that the U.S. market grew by nearly 9 percent, driven by expansion in retail channels and competition among major vendors.

"The main story here," said Doug Bell, an analyst with industry research firm IDC, "is that, even in the weakened economy we saw in the fourth quarter, PCs still come out better than most consumer technologies." Although the figures include enterprise sales, he noted that most PC sales in the fourth quarter were back-to-school and holiday gifts.

"We're looking at a healthy PC market," Bell summarized, adding that overall numbers were helped by Dell's bounce-back because of its entry into the retail market.