Actually, it's neither: Apple will release its Q3 2007 results next week, and we'll know then. This is the problem with market share: Even though it's more easily measured than, say, usage share, which might be a more meaningful number, we have to go off the often wildly different estimates of various analysts. I'll report on more realistic Mac market share numbers next week when the company issues its actual sales figures. Anyway, the Apple 2.0 blog from Fortune, or CNN Money, it's hard to say which, at least presents the fact that there are different estimates. I've gotten a few emails from Apple fanatics about the higher number, go figure, but none about the lower one. I guess you see what you want to see.
Dueling reports from Gartner and IDC show Apple (AAPL) grabbing a larger slice of domestic computer market in the third quarter of 2007, although the reports disagree about just how large that slice is.
Gartner has Apple’s market share climbing to 8.1%, up from 6.2% a year earlier.
IDC also shows strong growth for the company, but by its calculations, Apple now commands a 6.3% market share, up from 5.7% last summer.