MANILA, Philippines -- The Asia Pacific PC market reached more than 66 million units last year, driven by healthy sales of laptops, according to latest figures from research analyst IDC.

Lenovo remains the top PC vendor with a market share of more than 18 percent, followed by HP with nearly 14 percent. Dell, Acer and Taiwan?s Founder make up the top five PC vendors in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan).

IDC?s preliminary results show that the market grew 20.9 percent to reach 66.6 million units, with laptops continuing to become a key growth driver. Nearly every country in the region posted double-digit growth in laptop sales.

Meanwhile, fourth quarter shipments reached 18.1 million units (or a 21-percent year-on-year increase), as expected due to the holiday season.

Lenovo likewise led the market in the fourth quarter, followed by HP and Dell. In particular, IDC noted that Dell has been continuing its recovery in the region.

?Even though wild cards such as the US economy are looming overhead, the fundamentals are so solid that the market could very well beat our conservative expectations for 16.8 percent growth in 2008,? said Bryan Ma, director for personal systems research at IDC Asia Pacific.

IDC expects more intense competition in the notebook space in across all countries and expects laptop makers to come out with products that are smaller and packs more features.