Worldwide shipments of PC systems increased by a modest one percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, as spending shifted back to PCs from tablets, according to the latest figures. However, this was largely achieved by vendors reducing prices to attract buyers, at least in Europe.

This latest picture of the market comes from research firm Gartner, and is based onpreliminary results from the end of 2014. Gartner includes desktop and laptop PCs in its study, as well as x86 tablets running Windows 8, but excludes Chromebooks and other tablets.

Gartner said that its figures showed that the PC market is stabilising following several years of decline as buyers diversified their device portfolios - meaning that users were investing in tablets and smartphones rather than PCs. Last week, Gartner issued research predicting that demand for tablets will decline during 2015.

"Installed base PC displacement by tablets peaked in 2013 and the first half of 2014. Now that tablets have mostly penetrated some key markets, consumer spending is slowly shifting back to PCs," Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement.

The strongest growth came from so-called mature markets, with Lenovo retaining its position as the top vendor worldwide in terms of units shipped during the fourth quarter and the whole of 2014.

However, there are regional differences, with HP showing the strongest growth in the US and moving up to take the top spot there from Lenovo, making it the biggest PC vendor in both the US and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions during the fourth quarter.

Growth in Europe was driven by strong laptop sales during the holiday season, according to Gartner, with shipments reaching 26.5 million, a 2.8 per cent increase from the same period during 2013.

But this success appears to have been achieved by competing on price against other devices, which has probably hit the vendors in terms of reduced profits, said Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal.

"The low prices were enough to attract consumer attention away from Android devices, but had a negative impact on average selling prices and vendor margins," Atwal said.

In other words, the rebound in the PC market may prove a Pyrrhic victory for vendors, if they have to keep undercutting the tablet makers to attract consumer interest. Many PC vendors have long complained of slim margins on hardware sales, which have seen firms such asSamsung and Sony exit the market recently.

This is perhaps why vendors such as Lenovo and HP have continued to prosper, as they also supply the business market, a segment that has continued to require PC systems and associated support and services.

In particular, buyers seem to have been drawn to two-in-one or hybrid systems, which can be used like a standard laptop or converted to be used as a slate-mode tablet by either detaching the keyboard or folding it back behind the screen.

This style of device is predicted to experience the biggest volume increase in 2015, according to Gartner. This will please chipmaker Intel, which is also targeting hybrid devices with the new processor families it officially launched at the CES show last week, including its5th-generation Core processors codenamed Broadwell, and the Cherry Trail Atom platform.