Figures released last week show PC sales have grown 23 per cent compared to last year, pushed mainly by growing demand in Asia.

In the first quarter of 2010 81.5 million PCs were shipped, compared to 66.5 million in the first three months of 2009.

Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms at iSuppli, said it was the highest growth since his company began crunching the numbers.

He said: "This record growth resulted from strong sales in the first quarter of 2010 combined with weak conditions during the first three months of 2009."

HP kept its top slot in the quarter and grew sales by 22.2 per cent. Acer was a close second with 47.1 per cent growth giving it 13.3 per cent of the market. Fastest-growing was ASUS with a 136.2 per cent increase putting it in sixth place.

Apple squeezed into seventh place with market share of 3.4 per cent and growth of 32.4 per cent.

iSuppli is predicting overall growth for 2010 of 17 per cent. More here. ®