June 21st, 2000

[9:00 AM] Apple Stays Ahead of Dell, HP, Compaq, And Gateway by Kyle D'Addario For the fourth week in a row, Apple Computer has again found its web site at the top of the PC Data Top 10 rankings for Hardware Sites. Apple has maintained its lead over second place Compaq, with both companies drawing over 1 million visitors to their site. As we reported a few weeks ago, there are no Mac users among the PC Data sample. Some argue the large numbers are due in part to QuickTime, while other contend the numbers are generated from Mac people forced to use PCs at the office. Whatever the reason, Apple's site is still drawing a crowd. The top spots were again held by the industry heavy hitters, with IBM, Dell, Gateway, and HP all finding themselves in the top 10. Intel made its way back into the Top 10 this week, and was joined by another list newcomer, Sun.com. This Week Last Week Hardware % of Total Web Audience Reached Unique Users (000) 1 1 apple.com 1.6 1,226 2 2 compaq.com 1.4 1,034 3 3 dell.com 1.1 814 4 4 hp.com 1.0 765 5 7 gateway.com 0.9 710 6 6 egghead.com 0.8 612 7 5 ibm.com 0.7 514 8 * intel.com 0.5 354 9 8 googlegear.com 0.4 340 10 * sun.com 0.3 246 The Mac Observer Spin: While it is nice to hold the top spot, the important piece of information coming out of the PC Data numbers is that Apple is consistently drawing large crowds to their site. Whether it be PC users suffering through the day on their office machines, or QuickTime, or simply curiosity, the consistently significant number of hits shows that Apple is again in the collective computer conscious. Whether or not OS X is delayed or iMac sales are indeed slumping, Apple is back near the top of the computer world. Apple