The NPD Group reported that Apple computers, both notebooks and desktops, continued to take market share away from PCs in the consumer market.

The numbers, reported by Information Week, showed that in May, Appleis sales through both retail outlets and online rose to 13 percent compared to Aprilis 11.6 percent. Even more dramatic was the the notebooks sales which rose to 14.3 percent compared to 12.5 percent the month before.

"Itis part of a pattern," Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis for NPD, told Information Week. "They certainly have been gaining share over the last year to year and a half." Driving all this was Appleis notebook upgrade to faster Core 2 Duo processors, more standard memory and larger hard disks."The consumer market in general is embracing notebooks, and Apple is strong in notebooks," Mr. Baker said.

In the desktop market, neither Apple nor the PC vendors showed much growth. However, Apple still retained a small growth margin over the PCs.

In general, the Apple move to Intel processors appears to be seeding Apple growth. Mr. Baker thinks there may also be a halo effect with the iPod, but no one has been able to quantify that effect.