According to preliminary sales estimates , Gartner has placed Apple in the #3 spot in US sales for the June quarter.

Edited to change topic type to normal.

DT - we are not allowed to click on thestreet.com URL’s… 

Thanks, runedge.

Here is the AppleInsider link which has more detail anyhow.

I’ve made this a sticky topic for Wednesday evening. Extrapolating Apple’s historic domestic to international sales ratios, we may be in a good spot come Monday.

One cautionary note: The preliminary numbers put Apple and Acer within 60k units of one another in the US market so Apple’s #3 position is tentative. Regardless, considering Acer’s domestic unit volume increased dramatically following the acquisition of Gateway, Apple’s return to the top tier of US PC makers should be considering even more stunning and dramatic.

No prohibitions on this story. The source is the same and the The Street.com is being served up a heaping of humble pie. 

A little anecdotal color on the story:

An associate of mine ordered a BTO MacBook Pro on 06/24 and I ordered a BTO iMac on the 25th. Both units were shipped and scheduled for delivery before the end of the month. Both units shipped from China. 

In other words, Apple was shipping units aggressively and quickly into the quarter’s close.

Does anyone have stats on how well Gartner or IDC reflected actual shipment totals for Apple in the last quarter?

[quote author=“DawnTreader”]Does anyone have stats on how well Gartner or IDC reflected actual shipment totals for Apple in the last quarter?

Impossible to tell. Both report Apple’s sales in the US only, and Apple doesn’t report US only sales, but rather “Americas” and “retail”, which is mostly US, but becoming less.

Once Apple grows to the top 5 worldwide (2010q1 by my estimates) or Apple reports US only sales, only then will direct comparisons be feasible.

This chart may be interesting to compare sales with installed base.

Data point that do not have a marker but are only represented by a line are my forecasts.