According to the latest statistics released by research firm Canalys, the 2011 fourth quarter witnessed Apple surpassing Hewlett-Packard (HP) to emerge at the top-notch position among the PC makers. However, the research firm's counting of PCs also included tablet computers.

Going by the figures shared by Canalys, as many as 120 million PCs were shipped all across the globe during the mentioned quarter; with nearly 17 percent of them - 15.43 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs - having been shipped by Apple alone.

The numbers, which Apple confirmed last week while reporting its all-time-high fourth-quarter results, indicate that while Apple made notable advances in terms of PC shipments during the quarter, all the other remaining top-rung PC makers - HP, Lenovo, Dell, and Acer, in sequential order in terms of market share - witnessed a plunge in their market share, except for Lenovo.

While revealing that Lenovo's market share increased marginally by 2 percent during the quarter, the Canalys data showed that the "hardest hit" among the PC makers was the second-ranking HP, which is currently struggling against the competition from Apple, particularly after discontinuing its TouchPad tablet.

Noting that HP is presently "pursuing a Windows strategy for its tablet portfolio, Canalys analyst Tim Coulling said in a statement that the company was manufacturing business-centric products - like the recently-released Slate 2 - till Microsoft debuts its much-hyped Windows 8 operating system.