San Francisco, Jul 12 (IANS): Market research firms International Data Corporation (IDC) and Gartner Inc. have painted widely contrasting pictures Apple Mac desktop shipments in the second quarter (Q2) of 2019.

IDC said Apple shipments were up 9.6 per cent from an estimated 3.7 million units shipped over the same period in 2018 that puts the iPhone maker in fifth place with 6 per cent share.

Whereas Gartner Inc. said Apple shipped 3.7 million Macs in quarter two, down 0.2 per cent year-over-year (YoY). According to Gartner, Apple obtained 5.9 per cent of the global PC market -- down from 6 per cent in 2018.

The IDC report said Apple rounded out the top 5, shipping nearly 4.1 million units. Like other companies, Apple managed to move additional units into the channels to fend off potential tariffs. Additionally, the recent launch of new notebooks leaves the company in a position with plenty of inventory on-hand.

Meanwhile, both IDC and Gartner findings have received flak over the past year, both by industry watchers and manufacturers, suggest some reports.

Since these are shipment numbers and not sales, it is hard to ascertain the true effect of companies shipping a surplus of units to guard against tariffs.