WebProNews

Recent reports by two research firms place the Cupertino-based Mac maker ahead of Lenovo in US sales.

Figures from rival research firms IDC and Gartner show that Apple has passed Lenovo to take fourth place in US PC market share. According to Bloomberg, a combination of Apple's gains and Lenovo's losses in share contributed to the switch.

Lenovo now owns the IBM personal computing business, but saw corporate buyers stay away from them during the transition of that business. IBM reported that the transition was completed on April 30th.

Apple has said sales of its iconic iPod media player in turn helped boost purchases of the Mac personal computer. This "halo effect" helped Apple report its best quarter ever when it disclosed its most recent quarterly numbers.

Apple shipped 1,182,000 Macintosh units and 6,155,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 35 percent growth in Macs and 616 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter, according to a company statement.

Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Gateway occupy the top three places in US PC sales, after Apple and Lenovo swapped places below them. On the global side of market share, Dell remains the top PC maker, followed by Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.