In the closing days of 2008 Apple managed to pull an 8 percent share of the market, an all-time high for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company, according to Net Applications, which tracks operating system sales. "Apple's market share gains in December for the Mac and iPhone are impressive. However, for the last days of December, the numbers are nothing short of spectacular," reported Net Applications. "Apple's market share rose 7.5 percent for the Mac and 33 percent for the iPhone in a single month."

Apple had a record monthly market share of 7.31 percent for December, but in the after-Christmas shopping rush, its numbers jumped. In the last two days of December Apple came in with 8.01 percent of the market.

"This represents a phenomenal increase of 18% from November for the Mac and 89% for the iPhone. In addition, the iPhone has been taking off in France and the other countries it has been launched in, including an amazing .27% share of Web browsing in the United States," reported Net Applications.

In November, the Mac OS represented 6.8 percent of those sold on the market and the iPhone came in with a 0.9 percent market share.

In September, before its launch of the Leopard OS X, Mac had a 6.63 percent share of the market.