San Francisco - Global computer sales from July to September grew 15 per cent from 2007, but tougher economic conditions around the world meant that many of the 80.6 million devices sold were less expensive notebooks, according to research issued Tuesday by Gartner.

Growth was slowest in the United States, where sales increased 4.8 per cent from the third quarter of 2007.

"The US home market saw definite softness," said Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa, while the Asia Pacific region was impacted by slowing PC sales in China. "The global PC market finally felt the impact from global economic downturn."

Hewlett-Packard Co retained its position as the world's largest computer seller with an 18.4-per-cent market share, followed by Dell with 13.6 per cent of overall PC shipments.

World number three Acer saw its market share jump to 12.5 per cent from 9.7 per cent a year ago, thanks largely to its popular line of mini-notebooks, which sell for less than 500 dollars.

Fourth-place Lenovo Group saw its market share slip to 7.3 per cent from 7.8 per cent a year ago, while number five Toshiba Corp saw its share rise to 4.6 per cent from 4.2 per cent.