For Mac fans, there is good news and bad news coming out today from analyst Gene Munster of investment bank Piper Jaffray. The most notable aspect of Apple’s skyrocketing popularity is the fact that the company shipped 2.16 million Macs in the third quarter of this year. The part of the analyst’s report that might give some Mac fanboys a bit of perspective is even with that tremendous surge in sales, Apple’s market share constitutes a mere 3.2% of the worldwide PC market. More remarkable news is that Apple’s share of the worldwide computer market was 2.5% six months ago, so there was a 28 percent increase in market share in half a year. Even so, something’s fishy about these figures.
According to IDC, Apple’s market share is considerably higher than reported by Piper Jaffray, reaching 6.3% at the end of the third quarter of 2007. That’s compared with a 5.7% market share at the end of the same quarter last year, a 15.9% gain. Still, that’s a tiny sliver of Dell’s 28% market share and HP’s market share of 24.3%. Either way you slice it, even though the echo chamber of the blogosphere might make it seem like Apple is dominating, Macs are still a relatively minor player when it comes to market share. [Apple Insider and Notebook Review]
