Apple's Halo Shines

IDC's numbers paralleled those from Gartner, which also were released Monday. According to Gartner, Apple's U.S. computer shipments grew 31% in the second quarter, the fastest rate among domestic competitors and propelling the company into fourth place among market-share leaders.

Last week, Apple reported a blowout quarter, thanks in part to strong sales of its Macintosh line.

Apple plans to replace the PowerPC chips at the heart of the Macintosh computers with chips from Intel (INTC) beginning next year. Some analysts have predicted that the chip transition could slow the company's computer sales.

Apple officials said last week that they had seen no evidence of a sales slowdown due to the transition. However, they offered cautious guidance for the coming quarter, saying that the changeover to Intel chips could indeed affect sales.

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