The UK PC market grew 15.7 per cent year on year during the second quarter, IDC's latest market stats show.

Notebooks seem to have struck a chord with buyers leading to a 41.4 per cent increase in shipments year on year. Consumers in particular opted for notebooks - consumer laptop sales rose 94.8 per cent. Business notebook shipments grew 29.6 per cent.

Consumers led a surge in desktop PC shipments, up 6.3 per cent as a whole and 17.2 per cent in the consumer sector. The x86 server market jumped 18.8 per cent.

The increases in consumer PC spending can be blamed on "persistently low interest rates", IDC said, while "aggressive pricing strategies have done a great deal to boost stagnating desktop shipments."

HP remains the UK's market leader, but Dell showed the most growth and is now within spitting distance of market leadership. Although experiencing a slight year-on-year decline of 0.6 per cenrt in desktop shipments, HP's notebook shipments boomed by 106.8 per cent, increasing its notebook market share by two per cent. Toshiba's share of the notebook market increased by 63 per cent, and IBM too saw significant growth in this area. ®