Analyst firm IDC’s quarterly report on the state of the PC industry was released Wednesday, and it shows Apple was able to gain market share even in light of declining computer shipments overall.

Cupertino’s market share increased .2% year over year in the US to 7.6 percent, while overall PC shipments in the US fell 3 percent. Another winner here was HP, who took the lead in US shipments from Dell during the quarter.

Worldwide, things were quite a bit worse. The market contracted some 7.1 percent, although it was better than the 8.2 percent IDC had expected. The firm speculated that the US market’s resilience may be a sign that consumer spending isn’t as depressed as feared, and that even in a deep recession there may be opportunities for growth.

A lot of the growth will probably come in the portable computer market, which still is quite strong overall. “Tight credit and economic concerns have certainly taken a toll on PC shipments in the last couple quarters, but the move to portables, fueled by Mini Notebooks and falling prices, has mitigated the impact,” study head Loren Loverde said.

The “PC Hunters” ads came too late in the quarter to register any impact that could be gauged in the survey. It will be until July or so before we get any solid data on whether Microsoft’s price argument made any difference.

My guess is probably not. The worst of this recession spending-wise was last quarter in my opinion, and look how Apple fared. Could it be the Microsoft-leaning press is just a bit too eager to see Apple fail? What do you think?

 
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