"We're Number 4! We're Number 4!"

According to research firms Gartner and IDC, Apple achieved a big jump in its Mac market share during the fourth quarter of 2007, grabbing about 6% of the US market and placing behind Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Acer (and just ahead of Toshiba) for the quarter's fourth-largest PC shipment by number of units. See details here:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/16/apple_claims_6_percent_us_...

Admittedly, a 6% share of the market sounds pretty paltry, but it's still another milestone in the Mac'S recent sharp growth. And if I may add some unique context to that 6% achievement, consider this:

What's the combined share of the PC operating system software market for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, and Toshiba?

Zero percent. Those companies don't make operating system software.

What's Microsoft's share of the PC hardware (desktop and laptop) market?

Zero percent. Microsoft doesn't make those products.

The companies above make and sell PC hardware or software, but not both. Apple is in a unique position as a major name that straddles both markets. It holds only a small piece of each, true, but those other names hold a fair or large chunk of only one market, and utterly zip in the other market.

That puts a bit of a spin on the numbers, no?