A recent article in Interfax cites new statistics from Gartner Research that suggest during the Q1 of 2004, Hewlett Packard was the largest vendor of PCs the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) region, although IDC Research statistics maintain that the previous leader, Lenovo, had kept its position at the top.

IDC shows that Lenovo maintained a slight advantage over HP, with the two respectively holding 10.9% and 10.8% market shares in the region. Gartner's, however, swicthes the two, with HP taking the top spot, although, again, the differences between the two remain slim. Gartner does, report, however, that if ranking was based solely on the number shipments of desk-based and mobile PCs, Lenovo would be number one with a market share of 9.4% to HP's 9.3%.

Although statistics from IDC and Gartner disagree on Lenovo's position, both do show Lenovo's continued dominance of the Chinese PC market, which reported a 17.3% year-on-year increase during the first quarter of 2004. The individual consumer PC market also rose 27.7% year-on-year.