According to IDC's "Worldwide PC Tracker," Apple captured 5.8 percent of the total worldwide market for personal computers costing more than $1000 in 2006, Mike Shirer of the [url=http://www.idc.com]IDC[/url] research group told us. Apple's share of the worldwide computer market in 2006 (regardless of price) was 2.5 percent. (The Garnter research group reported in January 2007 that the worldwide computer market in the fourth quarter of 2006 grew by 7.4 percent over the previous year to 67.3 million units. Apple sold 1.6 million Macs in that quarter, giving it a "mere" 2.3 percent of that global market.)

So Eran is right in saying that the conclusions of market share statistics can be grossly inaccurate. If you remove the Mac mini (Apple's only sub-$1,000 Mac aside from the almost-$1,000 17-inch iMac) from the equation, the Mac's worldwide market share for computers costing over $1,000 (obviously, Apple's main target audience) is 5.8 percent compared to 2.3/2.5 percent of the overall market. That's a big difference, and pretty much underscores the notion that statistics can be used to "prove" a variety of things.

Also, for comparison's sake, Apple's share of the worldwide consumer and enterprise markets (regardless of price) was 1.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, per IDC.