The laptop market is growing and growing. In 2005, the total number was 65.3 million units, up 33.5% from the 48.9 million units shipped in 2004, according to data compiled by IDC. Of the total number of PCs sold, laptops accounted for 31% of the 207 million, up four percent from last year, and their market is expected to overtake that of desktops in the not too distant future.

Of the big players, Apple was number 9 on the top ten list in 2005.

Shipments (market share percentage: units/65.3 million total):

1. Dell - 11,290 (17.29%)
2. HP - 10,250 (15.70%)
3. Toshiba - 7,156 (10.96%)
4. Acer - 6,626 (10.15%)
5. Lenovo - 5,376 (8.23%)
6. Fujitsu Siemens - 4,089 (6.26%)
7. Sony - 2,560 (3.92%)
8. NEC - 2,447 (3.75%)
9. Apple - 2,171 (3.32%)
10. Asustek - 1,552 (2.38%)

(Source: IDC, compiled by DigiTimes, February 2006)

Might not seem like much, but one has to remember that these are the G4 PowerBooks and iMacs, that were outdated when compared to the competition. One of the biggest reasons Apple made the switch to Intel was the fact that IBM still had not delivered a portable version of the G5, one that had heating and power consumption levels that were acceptable for laptop usage.

But that's history now, and the new Intel MacBooks are here. If Apple was number nine on sales of the dated models, what will sales numbers look like this year, for actual top of the line competitive models? We'll see soon enough�