According to separate reports from both IDC and the Gartner research group, Hewlett-Packard has seen a 0.1% decline in PC sales during Q4 2010. HP shipped around 18 million PCs in Q4 but its share of the global market declined from 20.2 percent to 19.5 percent. This lose is blamed on a weaker than expected holiday season (at least for this segment) and other gadgets, including tablets and gaming consoles.

“While HP may have suffered in the consumer market, both reports said Dell, which relies more heavily on sales to businesses, showed a modest gain in shipments during the same period. Analysts said corporations are continuing to buy replacement PCs for their workers.”

Dell is also up 0.1 percent up compared to its 2009 share of the PC market, but HP is still the undisputed best seller in the PC industry. Hewlett-Packard shipped 62.7 million PCs last year, followed by Acer with 45.2 million shipments, Lenovo and Toshiba. The last two manufacturers have seen major growth spurts in 2010 and stick to their current rankings.

HP’s PC sales overall are on the decline, but the company has some big plans for 2011. Hewlett-Packard is planning to launch a webOS-running iPad rival next month. According to a CNBS interview with HP executive VP Todd Bradley, webOS may also expand its turf to “….other large screen devices.”