Going by the latest statistics revealed by IDC, Apple’s year-on-year PC market share plunged during the last quarter – coming down to 6.4 percent this time round, as compared to the same quarter earlier year share of 7 percent.

As per the IDC data, the PC market witnessed an overall growth of 24 percent in the US during last quarter.

The last quarter results also show that while Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system has been well-accepted since its launch, it still remains to be seen whether it will help the company gain US market share against the Mac maker.

Noting that gaining share against Apple was Microsoft’s “key goal and a key accomplishment” for the quarter, Reller said: “Clearly we made some inroads with those key audiences” – with the company claiming that the OS is running on every 1 out of 10 Internet-connected PCs round the world.

Meanwhile, in contrast to the IDC report, the preliminary figures released by Gartner reveal that Apple apparently gained US PC share during last quarter – with its figures rising from 7.2 percent in the same quarter last year to 8 percent this year. Additionally, Apple also noted in its earnings report that the overall shipments of Mac showed a 33 percent year-over-year increase for the first quarter.