"The headwinds in China continued to affect Lenovo's home turf significantly. The company ended the quarter with a double-digit decline in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan," it added.

In the third quarter of last year, Lenovo briefly claimed the top spot but HP quickly reclaimed the title in the following quarter.

HP retains advantages in key regions including the US, Latin America and Europe.

"The Asia-Pacific market has been a weakness the last three years for HP, but preliminary second-quarter results suggest an improvement of their performance in the region," said Gartner.

During a visit to Beijing in June, HP CEO Meg Whitman said her company is committed to building a stronger presence in China as the country becomes the most important regional market for HP's various businesses.

Global PC makers are vigorously exploring new businesses as the PC industry's star dims.

HP is heavily invested in software and services, which are major components in the company's five-year revival plan.

Dell Inc, the third-largest PC vendor, is betting on its new software arm to generate $5 billion in sales in the coming years.

In the meantime, Lenovo is turning its attention to servers and consumer electronics for higher profits.

A joint venture with the US data-storage company EMC Corp started to sell server products earlier this year.

Lenovo is ready to challenge Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co on the smartphone front, and it is poised to become the biggest smartphone vendor in China in two years. Yang set those targets for Lenovo in May.

By the end of this year, turnover in the smartphone business is projected to make up more than 15 percent of the company's total, said Liu Jun, senior vice-president of Lenovo.