Apple Computer Market Share Continues To Grow

Though the gains are small, each quarter Apple continues to gain market share on its PC rivals according to the latest research by Gartner. Apple has a 8.5% share of the market for the 2nd Quarter of 2008. The largest vendors, HP at 25.3% and Dell at 31.9% continue their lions share of the sales showing increased sales over last quarter. It should be noted that HP and Dell sales also include servers, which Apple does not sell. Which would mean that in the desktop and laptop fields alone, Apples share would increase.

There are many different theories as to why Apple has been growing during the past year. Most Apple people will state that it was when Microsoft came out with Vista, that Apple sales started to take off.  Also there is the theory that the Apple vs PC commercials in which Vista is bad mouthed has helped as well. Both theories have some merit.

What ever the reasons the fact is that Microsoft sees Apple an upward move and is trying to stem the flow. It was important for Microsoft to allow XP to continue to live and has authorized its use on the new netbook computers. This will also stem the flow of netbook systems with Linux installed as well.

So what is your opinion why Apple is slowly increasing its market share?

Comments welcome.

Gartner report is here.

Clarification: What I should of said was that Apple server sales are minimal. If we took just the laptop/desktop alone, they may reflect a higher share.