Apple Is Catching Up

The Apple Computer sales have long trailed the PC but there are signs of catching up. The Apple Desktop Computer again cracked the top three in U.S. PC sales for the second quarter, according to surveys released Wednesday by both Gartner and IDC.

Worldwide, Apple didn't make the top five PC vendors, according to both firms. But within the U.S., IDC estimated that Apple finished in a virtual dead heat with Acer for third place, just 2,000 units behind the Asian PC maker. Gartner, meanwhile, said that Apple took the third-place spot outright, topping Acer by 65,000 PCs sold.

Both IDC and Gartner retroactively ranked the Apple Desktop Computer fourth in sales for the second quarter of 2007, if measured against a merged Acer-Gateway business. If treated as separate companies, Apple would have maintained its third-place ranking.

Both sets of data are preliminary, the firms said. The PC sales estimates include desktops, laptops, and X86 servers, but not handheld PCs. Ultraportables and so-called mini-notes were also included, although Gartner estimated that they represented just 3 percent of the market.

In my opinion, the free software Boot Camp plays a major role in the increase of Apple Desktop Computer sales. It makes the transition from PC to Apple much easier since with Bootcamp, you can run PC software on the Apple platform.