Apple #2 in UK Education Market, Passing Dell

Apple Computer is the new #2 computer vendor in the UK education market, overtaking beleaguered Dell to get there. Macworld UK reported Wednesday that new market share figures from Gartner show #1 vendor Research Machines with 34.9% of the market, Apple with 14.7% of the market, and Dell with 14.1%. HP is the current #4 vendor with 7.7% of the market.

Gartner is also naming Apple as the #1 vendor in the broader Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) education market, with some 11.6% of the market.

Apple was once the dominant computer manufacturer for the education market, but suffered downturns starting in the late 1990s as Dell successfully foisted off cheap PCs running Windows. Windows-oriented IT managers, administrators, and parents wanting to teach kids on the same computers theyill use in the work place -- a fallacious argument with little logical basis -- combined with a growing tide of pro-Windows sentiment and ever-cheaper PCs to eventually push Apple to the number two and three spots in various education markets.

Beginning with the iBook, however, Apple began a resurgence in education, and the companyis Intel-based MacBook has apparently continued this trend. Gartner analyst Isabelle Durand told Macworld UK that the MacBook has been "quite successful" in the UK education market.