Gartner noted that vendors are having to deal with inventory that can stagnate, changes to their product mix and demand coming from harder to reach emerging markets. Businesses are buying some new machines but consumers are skittish and the low price high volume business favored by some vendors in the past isn’t working well now that many people aren’t eager to buy a new PC. Media tablets are causing grief, too, as they eat into demand for laptops and netbooks. This last quarter was more about cleaning out inventory than introducing new products and sales reflected that reality. IDC also pointed to the continuing economic weakness in global markets as well as businesses moving towards cloud computing and virtualization, which relies much less on the features of individual PCs.

The top five global PC vendors in order, according to both groups of analysts, were HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asus. Globally, HP continues to shine with businesses, but is facing challenges in the consumer segment. Lenovo experienced the strongest growth among the top-tier vendors worldwide, as shipments increased 22.5 percent. Acer is in trouble. It has dropped from No. 2 to the No. 4 position in the worldwide PC market. In the last quarter it had a great deal of inventory in the distribution channel in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Of interest is that while Apple doesn’t have a place in the top 5 vendors globally, in the US market the company holds the No. 3 position.

Both Gartner and IDC believe there will be a slight uptick in PC sales globally for the rest of the year due to back-to-school purchases and holiday gift giving, but overall the outlook remains weak. That said, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region is a bright spot, where sales continue to expand, with very positive growth overall. Consumers in MEA should become choosier, as due to the market’s buoyancy some vendors are not offering the best product selection, very competitive pricing or strong attention to service found in other regions.

Companies can be taught a lesson when consumer demands derail the best laid corporate plans. The market research firm Interpret reports that Nintendo has yet to capitalize on the earlier anticipation for its 3DS handheld gaming device. The report examines the 3D markets of theatrical, home entertainment and gaming, comparing Q1 2011 to Q1 2010. In gaming, the report shows interest declining 27 percent for the Nintendo 3DS from a year ago.

“The lack of sales for the 3DS does not reflect the overall interest in 3D gaming,” said Michael Cai, Interpret Vice President for Games and Technology. “Instead, it illustrates that Nintendo put the cart before the horse; that is, they released the hardware without the necessary software to engender robust sales. Our data shows that gamers want the Nintendo franchise games – Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, etc – but without them, the 3DS will continue to flounder.”

That’s definitely a lesson that consumers are smart enough to see beyond hype. So consider this note of caution coming from a Merrill DataSite survey of American transaction attorneys. When asked which are the most anticipated IPOs still to come in 2011 they answered Groupon (35%), Facebook (31%) and Zynga (6%). While the attorneys surveyed anticipated that technology and social media (60%) would  drive IPO issuances in the US in 2011, there are indications of a social media “bubble.” Survey respondents identified the IPOs of LinkedIn (61%), Groupon (26%) and Facebook (10%) as the most over-hyped.