The U.S. PC market brought a top three spot for Apple in second quarter this year, reaching an 8.5% market share, research firm Gartner Research reported this Wednesday. Overall, worldwide PC market grew 16 percent compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary results by Gartner.

Although number 2 in worldwide PC shipment, HP Dell maintained the number 1 spot in the United States in Q2 2008, with shipments accounting for 31.9 percent of the U.S. market and an 11.9% growth compared to the same period last year.

HP remained number 1 in PC sales worldwide, with its market share totaling 18.1 percent in Q2, and a growth rate a little above the market, according to Gartner. On the U.S. market, where PC shipments reached 16.5 million units in the second quarter of 2008, HP remained behind Dell, with 25.3% market share.

Apple had a good year in the U.S., despite the fact that things didn’t change too much in worldwide PC market. With the home and education PC segments as its strongest drivers, Apple manage to beat Acer this year: 8.5% market share, 38.1% growth since last year, compared to 8.1% market share for Acer and -20.8% decline from last year.

Overall, mobile PCs continued to lead the market, while desktop PCs lost ground due to higher prices: “Economic uncertainties have hit PC revenues, resulting in steep ASP (average selling price) declines, especially in markets such as the United States and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa,” Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner’s Client Computing Markets group explained.

Worldwide PC shipments reached 71.9 million units in the second quarter of 2008, showing a 16 percent increase from the second quarter of 2007, the report shows. The top five worldwide PC sellers were as follows: HP (18.1% market share), Dell (15.6% market share), Acer (9.4% market share), Lenovo (7.8% market share) and Toshiba (4.4% market share).

The top five for the U.S. market find Apple on the third spot, with the complete top five as follows: Dell (31.9% market share), HP (25.3% market share), Apple (8.5% market share), Acer (8.1% market share), and Toshiba (5.5% market share). Another report, released by IDC, shows Apple however out of the top three, but as both research firms have said, figures are still preliminary. Apple is expected to make its second quarter announcement on Monday.

Garter estimated that PC shipments in EMEA had a 23.5 percent increase compared to the same period last year, reaching 23.1 million units. This trend was directly linked to the decline in ASPs, the research firm explained, especially in consumer mobile PCs. Emerging markets in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa revealed the strongest increases this year, with 40% increased demand for notebooks.

The Asia/Pacific PC shipments totaled 20.1 million units in the second quarter of 2008, ending June, showing an 18.1 percent increased compared to the same period last year. The mobile PC market grew here as well by 45.6 percent, Gartner revealed.

Latin America exhibited the same increasing demand for notebook PCs, while overall PC shipments grew 23.2 percent, reaching 7 million units. In Japan, replacement demand for commercial mobile PCs in large enterprises and sales of $500 mini-notebooks were two of the growth accelerators for Q2, Gartner explained. Final statistics for the second quarter of this year are yet to be released.