A le's Marketshare clim to 6.6%

For as long as I can remember, the mantra has been "A le's market share is at 5%." Today, this article at The Street reports, "< an cla ="default">Through August, A le's share of the U.S. retailmarket for computers, excluding online sales, grew to 6.6% from 4.3% inthe same period last year, according to market researcher D Group.%26quot Furthermore, A le's share of the digital music player market is at 74%, and that's not including sales of the iPod nano.

Before you say the iPod is solely re o ible for this climb, co ider this quote from a related article on Money: "...analysts also agree that A le enjoyed high shipments of its personalcomputers for the quarter, benefiting from promotio tied to theback-to-school season." A le has long been i ovating with highly desirable objects, as you and I (read: the Mac faithful) have long known. It would seem the that the general public is starting to catch on. A le's timely, steady and very patient climb was (and continues to be) strategically orchestrated by Steve Jo . Which makes me wonder: Just what will A le do after Steve's retirement? We all joke that Steve routinely %26quot ees the future," but his calculated patience and foresight are very real.

For now, I'm just looking forward to Wednesday.

[Via Mr. Barrett]