Apple is now the third-largest PC vendor in the US, according to IDC and Gartner’s preliminary Q2 data, ousting Acer from the slot.

Gartner thinks Mac shipments were up 38% year-over-year in Q2 to give Apple 8.5% of the sputtering US market, up from 6.4% this time last year.

IDC figures the US PC market was up 3.6% in Q2, which Gartner, which had forecast only 2% growth, claims it was achieved on the back of a lot of price cuts, Apple included.

Gartner says US shipments were up 4.2%. Dell, with its shipments up 12%, not as good as the 15% it’s been doing, is supposed to have 32% of the market to HP’s 25%, according to IDC. HP was supposed to be up 16.8%.

Globally PC shipments were up about 16%, better than expected thanks a lot to EMEA and helped along by factors like a strong euro, the emerging markets and ultra low-cost notebooks although shipments were down in Asia-Pac.

Globally Dell is making some progress winning market share back from segment leader HP thanks to its adventure into retail. Gartner figures Dell shipments were up 22% in the quarter, while HP’s were only up 17% but HP continues to hold 18.1 % share to Dell’s 15.6%, up 0.8% year-over-year.