Along with the recent encouraging 3Q 2006 financial results from Apple on Wednesday, independent research firms Gartner and IDC have recently reported on 2Q 2006 market share (via MacWorld). Both firms report solid gains from 1 year ago, with IDC reporting a jump from 4.4 to 4.8% U.S. Marketshare and Gartner reporting a jump from 4.3 to 4.6%, making the Mac maker the 4th largest maker of computers behind Dell (32%), HP (18.9%), and Gateway (6.2%).
This is the first reported gains in marketshare for Apple since the Intel transition, as last quarter saw minor losses. From last quarter, it appears as though Apple has gained an entire percentage point in market share (up from 3.5-3.6% 1Q 2006).