New and Noteworthy: Apple's marketshare now 4.8 percent; Investors flock to Apple as sales surge 25 percent; more

Apple's marketshare now 4.8 percent iPodNN reports that Apple made significant gains in the US market, achieving 4.8 percent marketshare in second calendar quarter of 2006 on year-over-year growth of 16 percent. "According to market research firm IDC, Apple was the No. 4 PC vendor in terms of marketshare in US behind Dell (34.2%), HP (20.1%), and Gateway (6.5%); however, the Cupertino-based company achieved the second largest growth rate behind Gateway's 16.7 percent increase. Apple outpaced the industry's average of 6.7 percent in the US." More.

Investors flock to Apple as sales surge 25 percent The Australian reports that Apple's shared were sent up more than 7 percent in after-hours trading yesterday after beating Wall Street's estimate for the fiscal third-quarter. "The computer maker sold about 1.4 million Macintosh computers in the period, up 12 per cent from a year ago. Investors had been keeping a close eye on the Macintosh numbers following a sluggish April quarter in which Mac sales increased just 4 per cent. Analysts said the April slowdown reflected customer hesitation over making new purchases as the company made the transition to Intel-based microprocessors in its flagship computer line. Mr Jobs said 75 percent of the Macs sold last quarter contained Intel chips. He predicted that the remainder of Apple's product line would be fully converted to Intel chips by the end of the year." More.

Apple CFO on iPhone: 'we're not sitting around doing nothing' TMO reports that Apple is not "sitting around doing nothing," when it comes to cell phones, according to Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. The comments came during Apple's Q3 conference call with analysts Wednesday. "Apple has maintained a very, very strict policy of not commenting on unannounced products to the press or with analysts since the return of Steve Jobs to the CEO helm in 1997, and the comments TMO noted from the conference call do not technically violate that policy. They do, however, offer a hint as to Apple's direction for the future of its iPod and digital music empire." More.

Intel says profit plummeted 57% during second quarter The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Intel Corp.'s second-quarter profit plunged 57 percent as the world's largest chip maker struggled with stiff competition and a shift in demand toward less expensive products. The company also posted a disappointing revenue forecast of $8.3 billion to $8.9 billion for the current quarter ? less than the $9.04 billion expected by Wall Street analysts. "Stiff competition and a greater percentage of lower-end PCs being sold helped drive down average selling prices of microprocessors, Intel said." More.

Previously on MacFixIt

• Apple announces third quarter '06 fiscal results: $4.37 billion in revenue, $472 million profit; 75% of Macs sold Intel-based
• MacBook Pro: Continuing issues using airline, auto power sources
• Boot Camp Beta 1.0.2 (#4): Improvement of keyboard function
• MacBook (13"): Suddenly shutting down

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