Personal computer shipments notched their first quarterly growth in five years, researcher IDC said, though the gain of less than 1 percent from a year earlier.

PC shipments totaled 60.3 million units in the first three months of the year, compared with 59.9 million in the same period a year earlier, IDC said Tuesday. It marked the first increase since the first quarter of 2012, IDC said.

Seperately, Gartner Inc., another major tracker of PCs, reported a decline of 2.4 percent for first-quarter global shipments.

Sales of desktop and laptop computers have been in decline as consumer demand shifted to smartphones and tablets. Now the industry is counting on more interest in its machines from businesses and consumers wanting to replace aging hardware with sleeker and more powerful products that feature upgraded software.

Gartner's research includes desktops, notebooks and related devices such as Microsoft's Surface, but not Google's Chromebook. IDC includes Chromebooks, but not the Surface in this report.

HP Inc. retook the top spot with 22 percent in the first quarter, up from 19 percent a year earlier, IDC said. China-based Lenovo Group Ltd. posted a smaller uptick to 20.4 percent and Dell Technologies had 16 percent. Apple rose to 7 percent from 6.7 percent.

Gartner puts Lenovo at No. 1 with HP at No. 2. Dell grabbed the No. 3 spot, while Apple was No. 5.

In the U.S., Gartner said shipments fell 2.4 percent, with consumer demand dragging down sales. HP was No. 1 in the U.S. market, while Dell was No. 2. Apple was No. 4.