By Connie Guglielmo

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Global personal-computer shipments rose more than expected in the fourth quarter, led by demand from U.S. consumers for low-priced portable machines, according to researcher IDC.

Worldwide PC shipments increased 15 percent, while the U.S. gained 24 percent, Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC said today in a statement. IDC had expected global shipments to increase 11 percent and U.S. sales to climb 6 percent.

Hewlett-Packard Co. remained the world’s top PC seller, followed by Acer Inc. and Dell Inc. Consumers in the U.S., the world’s biggest PC market, snapped up low-priced notebooks and scaled-down netbooks in the holiday shopping season, said David Daoud, an IDC analyst. Business spending was weak, he said. Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 PC operating system, released in October, provided “moderate” help in luring buyers to stores.

“U.S. consumers have saved the market,” Daoud said in an interview. PC makers cut prices to help stimulate demand after customers held back a year on new PC purchases during the global economic crisis, he said.

Gartner Inc. also released its PC market rankings today and said fourth-quarter shipments rose 22 percent. That was the strongest quarter-over-quarter growth rate the worldwide PC market has seen in the past seven years, the Stamford, Connecticut-based researcher said. It also named Hewlett- Packard, Acer and Dell as the world’s top three makers.

Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, California, rose 25 cents to $52.22 at 4 p.m. on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares gained 42 percent last year.

Lenovo, Toshiba

Lenovo Group Ltd., the No. 4 maker, posted the biggest gain among the top five makers, with a 42 percent jump in fourth- quarter shipments, IDC said. Toshiba Corp. ranked No. 5.

In the U.S., Hewlett-Packard also led the market, followed by Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, Acer and Toshiba. Apple Inc., maker of the Macintosh computer, took fifth place in the U.S. Apple’s market share rose to 7.4 percent from 7 percent a year ago, based on a 31 percent rise in shipments.

Toshiba posted the biggest growth in the U.S., with a 72 percent gain in fourth-quarter shipments, compared with 45 percent for Hewlett-Packard, IDC said.

--Editors: Nick Turner, Stephen West.

To contact the reporter on this story: Connie Guglielmo in San Francisco at +1-415-617-7134 or cguglielmo1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Thaw at +1-415-617-7168 or jthaw@bloomberg.net.