PC shipments climb out of two-year hole
The official end of life for Microsoft ‘s (MSFT) Windows XP operating system on April 8 continued to boost personal computer sales in the second quarter, market research firms Gartner and IDC reported late Wednesday. After eight quarters of decline, worldwide PC shipments were up a scant 0.1% year over year in the second quarter to 75.8 million units, Gartner said. Rival research firm IDC, which measures the market slightly differently, said that global PC shipments fell 1.7% year over year to 74.4 million units in Q2, but that’s much better than its projected decline of 7.1%. In the U.S., PC shipments rose 7%. Gartner put the increase at 7.4% and IDC at 6.9%. Four of the top five vendors in the U.S. saw double-digit growth — Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba. But Apple (AAPL) saw a decline of 1.3% to 1.7% in Q2, according to Gartner and IDC estimates…