Apple making huge strides into government, enterprise and small business

On Friday, Needham analyst Charlie Wolf released a research note stating that Apple had made some huge advancements into the government, enterprise and small business markets in the US -- sectors typically dominated by Windows PC sales. Total shipments of Macs increased 66 percent in the first quarter of 2011, while PC sales only increased 4.5 percent.

Apple's gains get more interesting when you break them down into sectors. In the same time period, Mac sales increased 94.7 percent in enterprise (large businesses) and 80.4 percent in small businesses. In government, Mac sales were up a whopping 155.6 percent, while PC sales were up just 2.3 percent in the same market. In the education market, Mac sales only increased 1 percent, but PC education sales decreased by 6.5 percent in the same period. Finally, home or consumer sales were up 21.6 percent, while PC sales were down 4.4 percent.

Considering the stagnation of the PC market in the same period, those Mac sales numbers are extra impressive. Apple's growth isn't limited to the US either. In Europe and Asia, Mac sales increased 8 percent and 70 percent, respectively, while PC sales fell between 10-20 percent.