Remember back in the 90s when you’d try to get your pal/parents/teachers/parole officers/congressmen/body piercers to “switch” to the Mac camp, and their reason for not was because of marketshare? Validity of that claim aside, you might want to have them try again.

Apple claimed a whopping 10% (ok, 9.9%) of retail laptop sales in March of this year. When you consider how many brands of laptops there are, it’s significant. And as Apple doesn’t have nearly the market footprint of others, like Compaq, it’s even more telling.

When combined with desktop sales, then Apple reaches the ranks of the top 5 retail PC manufacturers for March, a place it hasn’t been in years.

The question is: Can Apple maintain the momentum? We’re guessing yes, because this looks very much like a “halo effect”, does it not?

Apple snags 10 percent of U.S. retail notebook sales in March [Apple Insider]