Apple Notebook Market Share Jumps To 10.6 Percent In North America

7:21 am, September 17th, 2008, Ed Sutherland

Apple increased its share of notebook computers sold in North America during the second quarter to 10.6 percent, moving it into fourth spot and posting the largest jump among top computer makers, researchers said Wednesday.

The numbers compare to the 6.6 percent market share registered during the same three-month period in 2007, according to DisplaySearch. The four-point jump is the largest of the top five PC makers. Dell led the market with 21.9 percent of North American notebook sales.

After the jump, read how the Apple ‘halo’ effect is boosting business interest in Mac notebooks.

“The halo effect is starting to pay dividends,” report author John Jacobs, report author and director of notebook market research for DisplaySearch, told Cult of Mac.

Jacobs, who previously worked at Apple, said the notebook market has shifted away from mostly sales to large businesses to being split 50/50 between consumers and enterprises.

“Small and medium businesses are increasingly going for Apple,” the analyst said. The reliability of Apple is now starting to trump reluctance because of price.

A hint to the reason for Apple’s increase may include 88 percent of notebook growth was in the 13.3-inch to 16-inch segment, which includes the majority of Mac notebooks.

Tuesday, Gartner said Mac U.S. sales rose 38 percent during the second quarter, outpacing No. 1 PC maker HP.

Last week, another research report put Apple notebooks in fourth place. MetaFacts researchers also said home users were increasingly buying Macs for the second or third computer.

Posted by Ed Sutherland in Apple, Hardware, News | Comment on this article