IDC's preliminary results show that the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market increased 2% from last quarter and declined 10% year-on-year in Q2 2014 to reach 24.3 million units, coming in marginally higher than IDC's initial forecasts.

In India, shipments to an ongoing large education project came in earlier than expected, adding about 100,000 units to the commercial PC segment. Thailand’s coup d’état, on the other hand, resulted in a steep double-digit annual decline as channels were wary to take in shipments. Microsoft’s Bing program is ramping up in the region’s emerging markets, with Malaysia being the first to come in strong this quarter.

"The ongoing economic slowness in the emerging markets sets the tone of the overall PC demand and inhibited the region’s year-on-year growth," says Handoko Andi, Research Manager for Client Devices Research at IDC Asia/Pacific. "There are pockets of optimism coming from mature markets like ANZ, Singapore, and Hong Kong, where the smartphones and tablets near saturation. However, the region’s growth has been adversely impacted with the rise of large-screen smartphones in China and most ASEAN countries.”

Lenovo retained the top spot with high sequential growth in China and India. In China, the vendor had a strong sell-in after a seasonally low Q1 due to the Chinese New Year. In India, the back-to-school campaign added to the vendor’s growth. Dell retained the second spot backed by strong growth in some key emerging markets like India and Thailand due to its increasing focus in the consumer segment and better relations with the channels. Acer replaced ASUS at the fourth spot contributed by the vendor’s growth in some key markets with attractive entry-level product line-ups.