As the world economy continues to slide in a generally downward direction there is an area still in growth:

Gartner, an information technology research firm, released figures on Tuesday that indicate that worldwide PC sales for the second quarter of 2008 went up by 16 %. 71.9 million units were sold, compared to only 62 million sold in the same quarter last year; IDC, another information technology research firm, calculated a 15.3% increase and 70.6 million units sold.

Unit sales were up worldwide: Asia/Pacific was up 18.1%, Latin America was up 23.2%, and Japan saw sales increase by 8.2%. The gains were mainly the result of lower average selling prices which has left any gain in revenues fairly static despite the increase in volume, according to a Gartner analyst.

Dell dominates the U.S. market, though surprisingly HP is the world-wide market leader, with an 18.1% share compared to Dell’s 15.6%. The other three positions out of the top five globally on the Gartner or IDC charts, are held by Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba.