Lenovo held on to its position as the world's No. 1 personal computer maker in the latest quarter despite a drastic dip in its core Chinese market. Figures published by tech research firm Gartner show an 8.6 percent decline in PC sales in the third quarter.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 80.3 million in the latest three month period, the lowest level since 2008. Europe, Middle East and Africa was the worst hit region, with a 13.7 percent decline in PC sales, followed by Asia Pacific falling by 11.2 percent.
The US market increased 3.5 percent, helped by low inventories being re-stocked and a new range of Intel chips.

Strong sales in the United States and Europe helped Chinese PC maker Lenovo hold onto the top spot among manufacturers. Things had not been going that well in Asia, so the rise in the US was good news. Lenovo's overall shipments rose 2.8 percent over a year ago to give the company a 17.6 percent share of the global market.

HP managed a 1.5 percent growth in shipments. This was the first positive shipment growth figure since the first quarter of 2012.