According to Gartner and IDC beancounters, PC shipments in Q1 have soared and the past quarter saw one of the strongest growth rates ever.

Gartner announced PC vendors shipped 84.3 million units in Q1, a 27.4 percent increase compared to Q1 2009. HP is still the top vendor with 15.3 million shipped units, but Acer is catching up with 12 million units. Dell ranked third with slightly over 10 million and it was trailed by Asus and Toshiba with 4.6 million units each.

IDC offered slightly lower, but nonetheless impressive figures. It estimates that Q1 shipments totaled 79.1 million units and that the growth rate was 24.2 percent. Interestingly, IDC claims the first quarter saw desktop sales recover above expectations. Desktops accounted for 40 percent of total PC shipments. They grew by 6 to 7 percent, well above IDC's 1 percent forecast.

Acer has managed to outperform the competition and its plan to become the biggest global vendor now seem within grasp. It year-on-year Q1 shipments grew by a whopping 54.3 percent.