PC shipments rose by nearly 10 percent in the April-to-June period compared with the same three months in 2002, according to research firm Gartner. Rival researcher IDC said Wednesday that shipments were slightly less robust, climbing by 7.6 percent.

A better than expected quarter resulted in total sales of 33.2 million desktops, notebooks and x86 servers. Additionally Dell maintained the #1 spot for the biggest PC manufacturer, shipping ~500,000 more computers than HP-Compaq.

In somewhat related news, our beloved AMD saw a slight revenue pick up this 2nd quarter however the company is still in the red. AMD reported a net loss of $140 million, or 40 cents a share, on revenue of $645 million for the period ended June 20. CNet has a detailed report on the matter, hopefully the processor manufacturer will close the year in better shape, or perhaps in the longer run once Athlon-64 processors are unveiled this September and Flash memory ventures represent bigger revenues. AMD has not experienced a quarterly profit since the second quarter of 2001.

Last but not least, we have our <cough> favourite computer company! heh... Apple has reported biggest revenues since 2000, posting a net profit of $19 million for its third fiscal quarter on sales of $1.545 billion. The Register has a complete write up here, amusingly enough, Apple sold less Macs in this period than a year before however sales were shifted toward higher-end products, hence the bigger revenues and profit.