Apple No. 1 in education in Western Europe, UK

Second-quarter sales figures show Apple growing its lead in Western Europe's education market, with a 19.2 percent market share for CPUs and servers. Apple also continues to be the top education computer manufacturer in the UK, retaining its lead in notebook sales, and taking the lead from Dell in desktops. Gartner Research figures put Apple's education market share in the UK at 17.2 percent, according to MacWorld UK.

Apple sold 119,000 Macs in the UK during the second quarter, a 40 percent increase from the year before. Gartner says Apple's sales are growing nearly twice as fast as the overall PC industry.

The Cupertino-based company is now the fifth largest computer maker in the UK, with a 4.3 percent share of the market. The report says strong mobile PC sales accounted for 64 percent of the overall computer market in the UK. While laptop sales rose sharply, desktop sales dropped 8 percent year-over-year. Gartner analysts warn that sales increases can't continue at this pace without new users entering the market, or existing users opting to buy a second or third machine.

In its third-quarter earnings call last month, Apple reported a 25 percent overall growth in education sales -- its best ever.

The company is hoping for strong summer back-to-school sales, offering customers a $299 rebate towards an iPod of their choosing when purchasing a Mac. Apple's success in the education market is no more evident than in Natrona County, Wyoming, where officials recently completed a $3.8 million lease-purchase deal for 3000 Macs for local schools.

Filed under: education
Other story tags: UK, market share