Asia computer sales up 38 percent in first quarter: IDC

Sales of personal computers in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan rose 38 percent in the first quarter from last year, driven by demand for notebooks, industry consultancy IDC said Tuesday.

"The sun is really shining now with economic confidence improving by the day," said IDC analyst Bryan Ma in a statement.

"Regardless of whether consumers really latch on to tablets later this year or not, the need for consumers in Asia to be connected online is tremendous enough to keep pushing the PC market ahead."

The Asian Development Bank said Tuesday that Asia's developing economies would grow 7.5 percent this year -- outpacing the 5.2 percent seen in 2009 -- although this would slow slightly to 7.3 percent in 2011.

IDC said that "consumer notebooks remained the key driver, lifting almost all countries in the region to a double-digit year-on-year growth."

Chinese computer maker Lenovo remained the region's top vendor with a 19 percent market share, followed by Hewlett-Packard (14.2 percent), Dell (9.9 percent) and Acer (9.6 percent), IDC said.