Going by the preliminary results by technology research and analysis firm Gartner, the global PC shipments during the 2009 fourth quarter was more than 90 million units – marking a 22.1 percent increase over the PC shipment figures of the same quarter a year before.

Meanwhile, the fourth quarter PC shipments in US stood at 19.8 million units, reflecting a 26.5 percent increase over the same quarter 2008 figures; with the quarter-over-quarter growth rate in the country touching the highest level in the past seven-year period.

Commenting on the increased PC demand, Gartner chief analyst Mikako Kitagawa said that the demand was fueled largely by “aggressive promotion by PC vendors and channels,” as well as “price cuts” by some vendors.

That low-priced mini-notebooks and netbooks are becoming increasingly popular with PC users is evident from the fact that HP, Dell and Acer outpaced Apple during the quarter.

On the basis of shipments, Apple fell to a fifth place among in the PC vendor rankings in the US, from its earlier fourth place, which was taken by Toshiba. While Apple reported a 31 percent year
-on-year increase in Mac shipments; Toshiba reported a nearly 71 increase in shipments.

Hewlett-Packard pushed Dell to the second place to gain the top ranking among five top vendors in the US; with the three other to rankers being Acer, Toshiba, and Apple.