The reports, released Tuesday U.S. time, suggested that Asus suffered a year-on-year first-quarter decrease of 11.4 percent to 14 percent.

Garner's estimates found Asus to be the world's fourth-largest-selling PC vendor, shipping 4.547 million units for a 7. 3 percent market share, whereas the company fell out of the top 5 in IDC's list.

According to Gartner, Asus suffered a 14 percent decrease in shipments from the same period last year, when it shipped 5.287 million units and had a market share of 8.3 percent.

By contrast, IDC grouped the PC manufacturer in its "Others" group, which comprises all vendors other than those in the top 5 and which the group said had total shipments of 16.967 million units for a 28.1 percent market share.

Local experts have suggested that the poor first-quarter performance was due to an increase in component costs and the resulting adjustment of production distribution.

How Did Others Fare?

Overall, the growth of the global PC market was either relatively flat or negative, depending on how the shipment units are calculated.

IDC, which counts Chromebooks, desktops, notebooks and workstations but not tablets or x86 servers as PCs, found that the market saw year-on-year growth of 0.6 percent with 60.3 million units in the first quarter.

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Gartner, which includes desktops, notebooks and ultramobile premiums but not Chromebooks or iPads in its calculations, found that the market's total shipments fell by 2.4 percent to 62.2 million units, reportedly marking the first time since 2007 that "the PC market experienced shipments below 63 million units in a quarter.

HP topped IDC's rankings, followed by Lenovo, Dell, Apple and Acer, with all of them posting year-on-year growth.

In Gartner's rankings, Lenovo took the top spot, followed by HP, Dell, Asus, Apple and Acer, with all except Asus and Acer reported to have seen year-on-year growth.

The Age of PCs No Longer

Despite the firms' somewhat different outlooks on the PC market, representatives from both reported slower growth and a delayed replacement rate for PCs.

"The PC simply isn't as in-demand as it once was," U.S. technology website VentureBeat noted.

The website quoted Gartner's principal analyst, Mikako Kitagawa, who said that "vendors who do not have a strong presence in the business market will encounter major problems ... and be forced to exit the PC market in the next five years."

According to Kitagawa, the consumer market for PCs will continue to shrink, which is why "maintaining a strong position in the business market," especially as "specialized niche players with purpose-built PCs, such as gaming PCs and ruggedized laptops," will be critical for sustainable growth.

IDC research manager Jay Chou expressed a similar sentiment. He was quoted by VentureBeat as saying that "consumer demand will remain under pressure, although growth in segments like PC Gaming as well as rising saturation of tablets and smartphones will move the consumer market toward stabilization."

Lenovo, HP and Dell, according to Gartner, will be the main contenders for "the large-enterprise segment" of the PC market, leaving limited opportunities for other vendors, except Apple, which Kitagawa said has "a solid customer base in specific verticals."

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