Gartner said shipments of personal computers including laptops dropped by a staggering 8.6 percent in he third quarter of 2013, highlighting the sector's continued fall.

In its fresh report, the research company added totals sales amounted to 80.3 million units in the period under review, down from 87.8 million a year earlier. The figures marked the sixth consecutive quarter of declining shipments worldwide.

"Sales this quarter dropped to their lowest volume since 2008," Gartner Principal Analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement.

Fierce competition

The study attributed the renewed decline to consumers' shift from PCs to tablets for daily content consumption and noted the drop in sales had been obvious in both mature and emerging markets around the globe.

While general sales were low, Lenovo managed to hold on to the top spot among PC manufacturers despite weakness in its home Chinese market. But strong sales in the US and Europe saw the company compensate losses at home and ensuring a market share of 17.6 percent.

Lenovo shipped 14.15 million units in the third quarter, compared to 13.73 units sold by runner-up HP. Dell, Acer and Asus made up the rest of the top five.

hg/hc (dpa, Reuters)