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Figures released by two market researchers this week show sales of Apple's laptop products increased its US market share to 17.6 per cent, moving the company to third place in terms of global market share.

According to research firm NDP, Apple's retail laptop

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market share rose 2.2 per in June compared to sales in the same month last year.

Meanwhile data from analyst IDC puts Apple third in terms of global PC market share for the first time since 1996, behind first and second place, Dell and HP, respectively. Gateway and Acer rounded out the researcher's top five for the last quarter.

Apple said in its last quarterly financial statement that it had sold some 1.8 million Macs in its most recent financial quarter, marking a 33 per cent rise over the same quarter's sales from last year. This amounts to 2.5 times the industry wide growth rate calculated by IDC.

Meanwhile, a report published today by the Financial Times indicates that Apple has finally signed up three European mobile phone carriers to sell the iPhone when it finally begins shipping here before the end of this year.