Global shipments of personal computers rose by 3% in the second quarter, helped by demand for AI-capable devices, with Apple seeing the biggest growth among PC makers, preliminary data from research firm IDC showed on Tuesday.

PC shipments reached 64.9 million units in the three months ended June, marking a second straight quarter of growth after two years of decline, the report said.

According to IDC, Apple's shipments jumped 20.8% from the second quarter of 2023, the biggest rise among global PC makers, followed by a gain of 13.7% by Acer Group.

The market for PCs is expected to rebound from a lull in orders following the pandemic-driven buying spree.

Two consecutive quarters of growth, the market hype around artificial intelligence PCs and a commercial refresh cycle seem to be what the PC market needed, said Ryan Reith, group vice president at IDC's Worldwide Device Trackers.

"The buzz is clearly around AI, but a lot is happening with non-AI PC purchasing to make this mature market show signs of positivity."

However, weak results in China continued to hold the market back, IDC said, adding that excluding the country, worldwide shipments grew more than 5% in the quarter year-over-year.

China's Lenovo Group saw the highest market share of 22.7%, followed by HP with 21.1%.

Dell technologies' market share was at 15.5% while its shipments fell 2.4%. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese; Editing by Maju Samuel)