Global shipments of personal computers slumped 10.9 per cent in the second quarter, research firm Gartner has said.

The market, which has been devastated by the popularity of tablets, has declined for five straight quarters.

Marking the longest decline in the PC industry’s history, Hewlett-Packard lost ground to Lenovo, now the world’s leading personal computer maker with a market share of 16.7 per cent.

"We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as inexpensive tablets displace the low-end machines used primarily for consumption in mature and developed markets," Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a news release.

Research firm IDC also said that PC shipments dropped 11.4 per cent in the second quarter, a bit better than expected.

"With second-quarter growth so close to forecast, we are still looking for some improvement in growth during the second half of the year," analyst Jay Chou said in IDC's report.

PC makers shipped 76 million computers in the June quarter, compared with 85.3 million in the same quarter last year, Gartner said.

Reuters