Gartner tracks industry statistics for computers, mobile phones and a number of other product categories. The company has published the latest numbers for the PC industry covering Q1 2010.

Gartner reports that it expected the industry to grow 22% but the industry beat expectations and grew by 27.4%. A total of 84.3 million PCs shipped for the quarter and HP was again the top shipper with 18.2% of the market.

With the poor global economy, it’s no surprise that computer sales are slipping around the globe. The only segment of the computer industry that is actually growing robustly is the netbook category as consumers look to lower cost devices.

Gartner Research announced its global PC shipment numbers for Q1 2009 today and HP sits at the top of the list. HP shipped 19.8% of the all PCs shipped globally. Total global PC shipments for the quarter were 67.2 million units.