Last January, when Steve Jobs rechristened his company by ostentatiously excising the word "Computer" and leaving it as simply "Apple Inc.," he did so during the very same public event when he first showed off the iPhone.

It also came right about the time that combined sales of iPod music players and iTunes music downloads eclipsed revenues from Apple's mainstay Macintosh personal computers.

The new name seemed to concede the obvious: The company's PC business, which for well over a decade couldn't garner even 5 percent of the U.S. market (nor more than 3 percent worldwide), would no longer be front and center. After all, the stripling iPod and iTunes Music Store were holding almost Microsoftian sway in their realms, and the iPhone already was the most ballyhooed new gadget since the transistor radio.

But a funny thing has happened over the past couple of quarters. While Apple has been firing on all cylinders, and the iPhone is selling hundreds of thousands of units a month, its Macintosh business is the hottest line of all. It roared back in the quarter that ended in June to reclaim its status as the company's largest revenue source and, at long last, break that 5 percent share barrier, according to IDC.

Indeed, Apple's U.S. Mac sales have grown at triple the rate of the rest of the PC industry since last fall, propelling it into third place in the U.S., behind Dell (Charts, Fortune 500) and Hewlett-Packard (Charts, Fortune 500)." Via CNNMoney.com

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