IDC thought PC units were going to dive 6.3% worldwide in the June quarter. Turns out they were only down 3.1%.

Revenues, when those numbers come out, will be another matter because the consumer, who has single-handedly kept the pot simmering without any help from his corporate counterpart, has been cost-conscious rather than performance-driven and very much taken with cheap netbooks.

According to Gartner's numbers worldwide, PC unit shipments dropped 5% to 68.1 million, less than the nasty 9.8% it had forecast.

Portables, of course, continue to be the primary driver of volume and growth. In terms of units, IDC says all regions either met or surpassed expectations on the back of strong portable shipments.

While the numbers suggest a return to growth by the end of the year, IDC said "the market's focus on lower-price PCs and mini-notebooks is likely to drag the value of the market to lower levels." It isn't counting on the commercial sector to boost growth now until 2011.

IDC found the U.S. PC market down 3% year-over-year in the second quarter. It says Dell reclaimed primacy of place by three-tenths of a point, but remains hampered by slow commercial spending. Dell is supposed to own 26.3% of the market to HP's 26% followed by Acer with 12.6%, Toshiba with 7.7%, and Apple nosed out of fourth position with 7.6% after shipping 12.4% fewer units.

According to Gartner, which thinks Apple's market share increased to 8.7%, the U.S. outperformed the global market despite enterprise weakness, declining only 1.2% year-over-year. It sees signs of a gradual PC recovery in the states and Asia-Pacific.

EMEA continued to contract but at least showed single-digit portable growth thanks to netbooks. Japan's shipments declined slower than expected. There too netbooks were popular. Asia-Pac shipments exceeded forecasts, with China a bright spot and India coming in close to expectations.

On a worldwide basis IDC says HP gained 3.6%. It now owns 19.6% of the whole PC market to Dell's 13.7%.

Acer is capitalizing on its cheaper portables and netbooks and, while gaining significantly in the U.S. at the expense of Dell and Lenovo, is also nipping at Dell's heels internationally, coming in with 12.7% of the world market.

Dell shipped fewer units worldwide than last year, down 17.1%; Acer is up 23.7%.

Lenovo showed positive growth after six months of declines to claim 8.7% and Toshiba outgrew the market in most regions and now holds 5.3%. It was the only major Japanese OEM to have positive yearly growth in Japan.