Apple is now the number three computer vendor in the U.S. -- and that's not even counting iPads in computer sales. It's Macs only.

According to the Garnter research group (http://www.gartner.com) Apple has 11.6% market share as of the quarter quarter of 2011. That compares to 9% for the year-ago period, a growth of 20.7% year-over-year.

Apple enjoyed the strongest growth among the top five vendors. The only computer vendors ahead of Apple in the U.S. are HP with 23.1% market share and Dell with 22.4% market share. And those stats are down 26.1% and 4.5% respectively year-over-year.

According to the IDC research group (http://www.idc.com) the Mac has 10.92% of the computer market as of the fourth quarter of 2011. That compares to 8.63% for the fourth quarter of 2011 for year-over-year growth of 18%.

Per IDC, the computer vendors ahead of Apple in the U.S. are HP with 23.02% market share and Dell with 22.44% market share. And those stats are down 25.30% and 4.7% respectively year-over-year.

Globally, Apple has yet to make it into the top five. The top-selling computer vendors globally are HP (16% market share), Lenovo (14%), Dell (12.5%), Acer (10.7%) and Asus (6.8%), according to Gartner.

The top five computer makers worldwide, according to IDC, are HP (16.31% market share), Lenovo (14.04%), Dell (12.91%), Acer (10.56%) and Asus (6.73%).