Mac sales growth continues to surge ahead of PCs 3 to 1

By Sam Abuelsamid
In a pattern that has become very familiar to watchers of the computer market in the last few years, sales of Macs have grown at three times the rate of computers powered by other operating systems. According to a report issued by IDC, Apple computer sales jumped 28.5 percent in the July-September 2010 quarter compared to the same period in 2009. Sales of other personal computers only grew by 9.7% in the same period.

The single biggest jump in sales has come from the business market, which is up by 66.3%. Among large and very large businesses, sales spiked 146% and 202% respectively, which is an excellent sign for Apple. Those large businesses tend to be controlled by large IT departments, which are typically very conservative when it comes to computer system upgrades and replacements. The popularity of iOS devices among executives and the more tech savvy is probably playing a big part in convincing these companies to take another look at Apple on the desktop.

According to IDC's estimates of average selling prices, Apple is also now the dollar market share leader in the U.S. home market with 29.4% of all the dollars spent on computers in the period. However, this figure is open to debate based on IDC estimating a higher average transaction price than Apple's own results. Regardless of which revenue estimate is correct, it's clear that Apple is gaining a lot traction in every market except education where PCs outpaced Macs by 11.4% to 5.1%. Apple still has plenty of room to grow however, with only 4.36% of the global computer market.

via Fortune

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