Apple continues to broaden its grip on European education computer sales, Gartner confirmed today.

According to the statistics for the second calendar quarter of 2008, Apple remains the number one PC manufacturer in the education segment across Europe, a position its held for eight successive quarters. In fact, Apple sold 19.2 per cent of all CPU's sold in the sector - including servers.

The company also remains the leading manufacturer in the UK - eclipsing Dell - for notebooks and now also desktops, holding 17.3 per cent of UK education marketshare, the analysts said.

These figures are simply a continuation of good news for Apple. In May, NPD revealed that two-thirds of laptops costing $1,000 or more and sold across US retail shops are Macs - 66 per cent.

The situation is very similar in the US, where Apple surpassed Dell as the number one supplier of portables to US higher education for 2007.

Beyond notebooks. Apple’s retail desktop sales have climbed 45 per cent, against industry patterns for desktop sales.