The strong business spending on PCs will probably help Dell, too, which has been selling fewer low-margin consumer PCs and focusing on higher-margin products like XPS PCs.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 87 million, growing by 2.3 percent compared with the first quarter last year. IDC had forecast a drop of 0.9 percent, based on an expected shortage of hard drive supplies due to the lingering effects of floods in Thailand. While hard drive supplies remained an issue, PC makers "had better access to drives than customers in the retail and distribution channels," IDC said.

In a separate survey, research firm Gartner said worldwide PC shipments grew by 1.9 percent, partly driven by strong 6.7 percent shipment growth in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region. Shipments in the U.S. declined by 3.5 percent, while Asia-Pacific performed below expectations due to slower-than-expected growth in India and China.

PC shipments will pick up significantly by the fourth quarter this year as hard drive shipments and PC prices normalize, said Loren Loverde, vice president at IDC, in the statement. Dell and HP earlier this year said the PC market was hurting with rising hard drive prices, but the favorable prices of other components such as memory and LCDs helped offset some of the impact.

The shipments will probably get a boost though when Windows 8 is launched, which could spur PC upgrades, Loverde said. Microsoft has not officially announced a release date for Windows 8, but IDC said that PCs with Windows 8 will probably become available in the fourth quarter.