The overall percentage is still insignificant , but sales of Apple ’s Mac figurer in the enterprise soared in the fellowship ’s last financial quarter .

Apple Insider ’s Neil Hughesflagged some late data compose by Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf noting that Mac cut-rate sale in the enterprise increase 66 percentage in the company ’s fiscal second quarter ended March 26 .

That feed Macs only 3 percent of the enterprise PC market , but that ’s the society ’s largest part since the second poop of 1997 , and the 66 percent growth charge per unit stands in stark dividing line to the 4.5 percent growth in second - quarter endeavour cut-rate sale for all other personal computer .

Hughes writes :

Broken down my market place segment , Mac freight develop 94.7 pct in the “ very magnanimous business ” category , 75.5 percent with “ large businesses , ” 58.1 pct with “ medium business enterprise , ” and 90.4 pct with “ little businesses . ” All of those sum well exceeded increase in the overall PC market .

Macs also are arrive at steep inroads into the government sector , posting 155.6 per centum growth in the 2nd poop , versus a bare 2.3 percent for other microcomputer , Hughes notes .

What makes this even more interesting is that Macs cost more than PC , yet more enterprise were willing to take form for the Apple calculator in the 2d one-fourth , despite an economy that has forced companies to tighten their budget . Yes , corporate spending may be up from a class ago , but no one ’s precisely write vacuous checks to computing machine maker .

So what ’s driving this surge ? In a word , the iPad . Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook read as much during the quarterly earnings conference call in April , citing the tablet ’s “ halo effect . ” The iPad has pass through the corporate grocery in a big way since its introduction in April 2010 as executives have bring their own Apple tab into the office and companies have lead off purchase them for workers .

It ’ll be interesting to see if the vogue carry on in Apple ’s third quarter .