Asus

MacBook back on top at Amazon

In a sign that should bode well for Apple's (AAPL) earnings in its third fiscal quarter -- which ended Saturday -- the MacBook has clawed its way back to the top of Amazon's (AMZN) bestseller lists.

The Mac, which once led the pack in the online retailer's Computers & PC Hardware Bestsellers category despite its $1,000 to $2,000 sticker prices, had fallen behind the blistering sales pace set by netbooks like MORE

AMEX vs. Amazon; Macs vs. netbooks

Here's a tale of two demographics.

If you list the five bestsellers in Amazon's "Computers and PC Hardware" category today, you get five netbooks -- three ASUS Eees and two ACER Aspire Ones. That's been the story pretty much all year.

If you list the five most popular items in "Computers and Software" on American Express's shopAmex site, you get four Apple (AAPL) products -- three MacBooks, one Apple TV and one MORE

Why Apple's shares rose as its market share shrank

On Wednesday, Gartner Research reported that Apple's (AAPL) share of the U.S. computer market, which topped 9% in calendar Q3 last year, dropped to 7.4% in Q1 2009 -- putting it in fourth place behind HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and Acer.

The next day, Apple's share price rose nearly 2% to finish Thursday at $121.45, its highest close in six months.

Why the disconnect? Chalk it up to the ASPs.

As Gartner's Mikako MORE

Amazon's Christmas bestsellers: Acer, Apple and Asus

Look what Santa left under Amazon.com's tree this Christmas morning:

7 Acer netbooks
7 Apple MacBooks
4 Asus netbooks
2 Samsung netbooks
2 MSI netbooks
1 OLPC (One laptop per child) XO laptop
1 Lenova Ideapad laptop
1 Toshiba Satellite laptop

Can you spot the ringer on Amazon's 2008 Christmas-day list of 25 bestselling notebook computers?

You guessed it. It's those seven premium-priced Apple (AAPL) MacBooks in a shopping cart dominated by stripped-down netbooks, heavily discounted Windows notebooks and a MORE

Christmas eve: Apple MacBook is Amazon's No. 1 top-selling computer

Despite fierce competition from machines with more than twice the memory and price points hundreds of dollars lower, Apple's (AAPL) white 120 GB MacBook has captured the top spot on Amazon's (AMZN) list of bestselling computers this Christmas eve.

Helped along by rebates ranging from $75 to $150, three Apple-brand notebooks are on the top 10 list this morning. The other bestsellers are the 80 GB MacBook (No. 7) and the MORE