by , 4:00 AM EDT, July 19th, 2005

Apple Computer's share of the personal computer market in the U.S. took a dramatic 22% jump in the second quarter, surging to 4.5% from 3.7% a year ago, research company IDC has reported. IDC said Apple's growth was helped by sales of the Mac mini and its iPod music player.

Shipments in Q2 2005 were 658,000 units compared to 495,000 in the same period last year. The .8% increase puts Apple in fourth place among manufacturers.

"The iMac mini as well as the visibility and appeal of Apple's music business, including the iPod line, has clearly benefited the company's PC business," the report concluded, "and the company appears well positioned for education and consumer sales going into the second half of the year."

The preliminary worldwide results did not reveal Apple's worldwide marketshare or exact position among manufacturers. An IDC spokesman was not available late Monday to give further details to The Mac Observer. The results did show Apple was not among the top five PC makers in worldwide marketshare. With Fujitsu/Siemens in fifth spot, the best Apple could have done in worldwide marketshare for the quarter was 3.6%.

Apple's global unit shipments rose more than 37% year-on-year quarter, more than twice the 16.6% growth of the overall PC industry. "(Apple's) growth in retail, Europe, and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) all grew by more than twice the worldwide rate," IDC reported.

Dell Inc. maintained its number one ranking among U.S. P.C. makers with a 19.3% share, or 23.7% growth versus last year. HP retained its No. 2 spot with unit growth of 7.0%, to 2.76 million PCs shipped in the second quarter. HP's market share in the second quarter was 18.7%, IDC said.

Gateway took the No. 3 position with a 6.0% share, up 26.6% from a year ago.

The PC market again proved its resilience as worldwide shipments jumped to 16.6% growth in the second quarter, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. Low-cost systems and portable adoption continue to be key market drivers, stimulating consumer adoption as well as commercial replacements.

Worldwide growth was up more than 4% from May forecasts of 12.3%, while growth of 11.7% in the U.S. was in line with forecasts of 11.6%.

"This kind of growth in the PC market is just amazing," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "At some point we expect the flood of consumer and portable demand to let up, but so far falling prices and demand across regions and market segments continues to support growth. Such consistent growth raises the prospect that the recent replacement wave is being supplanted by growing adoption that could sustain higher growth into the future."

In terms of worldwide marketshare numbers, Dell continues in the No. 1 spot with a 19.3% share, up 23.7% from a year ago period, HP took second at 15.6% with a 16.3% growth spurt, Lenovo took third at 7.6% marketshare on a 271.3% growth jump, and Acer took fourth with a 3.7% share, or growth of 62.2% from a year ago.

[UPDATE: The article was corrected to note that Apple's share jumped .8%, a 22% increase. - Editor]