Apple #3 U.S. PC Maker with 10.7% Market Share

Apple was the #3 computer company in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2011, according to research firm Gartner. The company reported preliminary results for the June quarter for worldwide and U.S. PC shipments, and said that Apple’s Mac platform owned 10.7% of the market, passing both Toshiba and Acer for its first top three showing since The Mac Observer was founded in December of 1998.

The figure below shows Q2 market share for the U.S. market.

U.S. PC Marketshare

Chart compiled by The Mac Observer from data provided by Gartner

Overall, worldwide shipments of PCs increased by some 2.3% year-over-year during the quarter. The company said that while mini-notebooks and other cheap laptops helped fuel PC unit growth for four years, that the market is now, “shifting to modest, but steady growth, and that the market is still in a state of transition.

The company also said that it’s the iPad that has caused this state of transition, and that retailers have been working to secure space for “media tablets such as the iPad.” That space has come at the expense of PCs, leaving some PC vendors having to lower their inventory through promotions, while others slimmed their product lines at retailers.”

Except for Apple, which showed, “the strongest growth among the top-tier vendors in the U.S., as it climbed from fifth place to third, overtaking Acer and Toshiba,” the company wrote. “The preliminary findings show Apple’s performance far exceed the industry average, partly driven by an iMac refreshment that attracted both consumers and buyers in the education sector.”

In the U.S., Apple grew sales 8.5% year-over-year, while Toshiba also grew sales at 3.3% year-over-year. HP, Dell, Acer, and even the “Others” category all show year-over-year declines.

The figure below shows U.S. unit shipments for the quarter.

U.S. PC Unit Shipments

Chart compiled by The Mac Observer from data provided by Gartner

Apple still isn’t big enough to crack the top six in the world, however, with HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, and Toshiba all ahead of Apple in global PC shipments. Apple’s global sales weren’t listed in Gartner’s reports, but if the company reports the 3.5+/- million Macs when the company releases its June results next week, it would still be more than 900,000 units behind 6th place Toshiba, which shipped 4.4 million units, according to Gartner.

Still, Apple has outgrown the PC market as a whole for the last 22 quarter in a row, and the company likely picked up market share during the June quarter, too, just not not enough to play with the biggest of computer boys and girls. Yet.