That's a Whole Lotta Apples

Apple profits are up 67% this quarter. Critics might tell you that Apple if coasting along on “fad” items like the iPod (now in its sixth year of market domination), or the iPhone (the best selling smartphone on the market, and fourth cell phone in sales). But they’d be wrong. Apple is making its big money the old-fashioned way, by selling lots and lots of Macs:

Apple said it sold 2.16 million Macintosh computers during the quarter. The market research firm Dataquest estimated last week that it had sold 1.3 million computers, and I.D.C. put the figure at 1.1 million. Dell sold 5 million computers and H.P. sold 4.3 million in the same period, according to the I.D.C. report.

With those numbers, Mac’s Q3 US market share is now approaching nine or ten percent, including the lowest-of-the-low end, where it doesn’t even compete.