Gartner: Apple’s Q1 sales rise 30 percent in U.S.

Apple hung on to 5 percent of the U.S. personal data processor market the first twenty-five percent of this twelvemonth , enquiry business firm Gartner say Thursday , fueled by another telling jump in system deal compared to a year ago .

According to Gartner ’s quarterly figurer consignment reckoning , Apple sell 741,000 machines in the United States during Q1 , 30 percent more than the 570,000 sold during the first three months of 2006 .

The first quarter numbers are estimate only , cautioned Mika Kitagawa , a Gartner primary enquiry analyst , since Apple wo n’t hold itsearnings calluntil next Wednesday . In fact , Gartner ’s research competitor , IDC , omit Apple from its study because of the lack of strong data , say analyst David Daoud .

Although Apple ’s identification number expect impressive at first glimpse , the 741,000 Macs sold in the first quarter was off from Apple ’s fourth poop figure of 808,000 . In that quarter , Gartner pegged Apple ’s U.S. share at 5.1 percent , a tenth of a point higher than the most recent three - month period . Both quarters , however , posted 30 percent gain over the same quarter the year before .

Like most computer manufacturers , Apple ’s Mac shipments typically expend from the fourth calendar quarter to the first twenty-five percent of the next year . Last year , for example , sales that Apple attributed to “ Americas”—which let in Canada as well as Central and South America — fell 4 percent from the 4th quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of 2006 .

“ One of the two emergence driver for Apple has been replacement of the installed base , ” say Kitagawa , as user substitute fresh Intel - based Macs for older , PowerPC - outfit systems . “ That ’s been the biggest growth equipment driver , but it wo n’t go on forever . Sometime this year , that [ part of growing ] might slow down . ”

The other number one wood of Apple ’s growth , said Kitagawa , is Microsoft ’s Windows Vista . “ This is a good opportunity for Apple to grow their despatch ” as current Windows users decide whether to upgrade to Vista or exchange to the Mac .

As for Apple ’s own operating organization — or at least the next upgrade , Mac OS X 10.5 , dubbed Leopard — it was recently pushed back to an October passing . That move wo n’t have much effect on hardware sales , Kitagawa said .

“ Leopard being late wo n’t have any impact on their shipments , ” she enjoin . “ [ Leopard ] is not a emergence number one wood , but it ’ not an inhibitor either . ”

Apple ’s 30 pct U.S. maturation rate twelvemonth - to - year was the highest of any major computer Jehovah , Gartner ’s data reveal . Second on its growth chart was Toshiba America , which get a line sale climb 26.8 percent in the first quarter of 2007 over 2006 . Hewlett - Packard , meanwhile , posted a growth rate of 25.8 percent , while Dell ’s share fell from 33.9 percent of the U.S. market to 27.9 percent as unit sales plunged by 15.5 per centum .