SAN FRANCISCO (REUTERS) - Global personal computer shipments fell 10.6 per cent in the quarter ended December compared to a year earlier, research firm IDC said on Tuesday (Jan 12), the largest decline since IDC started tracking PC shipments.

Longer lifecycles for PCs, along with competition from mobile phones and tablets, have continued to hobble demand, IDC said. The industry also faced a tough comparison to a year-ago period when many consumers were snapping up heavily promoted low-cost PCs, it said.

Gartner, a rival research firm, put the decline at 8.3 per cent.

Shipments totaled 71.9 million units, up slightly from the third quarter but the largest year-on-year decline in IDC's records, topping a 9.8 per cent decline in 2013.

Business should increase later this year as companies that had delayed replacing machines until upgrading to Windows 10, Microsoft's latest operating system, make the switch, IDC said. It also expects consumers to upgrade their own machines.

PC shipments fell in all regions, IDC said, including a 4.3 per cent decline in the United States compared to a year earlier.

Lenovo led PC makers with 21.4 per cent market share worldwide, followed by HP with 19.9 per cent and Dell with 14.1 per cent.

In the United States, HP held a 28.1 per cent market share, down slightly compared to a year earlier, with Dell second at 23.9 per cent, up slightly compared to the previous year.