An analyst is tipping Lenovo as a future global number one PC vendor.

Worldwide shipments of PCs dropped towards the end of last year as consumer demand slowed. Ultrabooks, introduced to the market in the holiday season, didn’t attract consumers, and the overall decline in PC shipments for the fourth quarter of 2011 was 1.4 percent.

Lenovo has boosted its Australian and New Zealand sales team with the appointment of a new channel manager as the company ramps up its PC sales efforts in the region.

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  When top PC maker HP announced it was considering the idea of divesting that part of its business, many people were surprised. But the company has decided that was a bad idea after all.  

Australia's love affair with digital technology isn't fading, despite our reportedly reduced appetite for spending.

With worldwide PC shipments totalling 91.8 million units in the three months to the end of September this year – falling short of forecasts by around two percent – the consumer PC market continued to be weak as the popularity of non-PC devices, including media tablets, like the iPad and smartphones, took consumers' spending away from PCs.

The commoditisation of the PC market in Australia and New Zealand is accelerating, although heavy discounting by vendors and channels kept the market buoyant in the second quarter this year, with 1.8 million unit shipments. HP and Dell successfully regained market share in the quarter, while Apple again outpaced the market with a growing installed base.

A major shakeup is underway at HP. The company has decided to drop webOS and is considering the divestiture of its PC business. It has boosted its enterprise software operations with a deal to acquire of Autonomy.

With 94% or almost 635m new PCs shipped by the end of 2011 to come with Windows 7, and on 42% of all PCs in total, Microsoft’s Vista replacement is slowly but surely making its way up the charts, as Apple posts small gains and Linux based operating systems remain “niche”.