From YahooNews by Patrick Seitz.
Apple Computer is poised to grab more converts to its

The new Mac buyers are driven as much by Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL - News) decision to switch to Intel (NASDAQ:INTC - News) processors as they are from the halo effect associated with the company's much-loved iPod portable music players.In its latest survey, ChangeWave Research found a large and growing pool of consumers who say they're more likely to buy one of the new Intel-based Macs.

The survey of 3,046 members of the ChangeWave Alliance shows that 37% say they're more likely to buy an Apple computer because of the Intel chips. That's nearly double the 19% found in a June 2005 survey, taken just after Apple said it was switching to Intel chips for its Mac computers. It had used chips made by IBM (NYSE:IBM - News) and Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL - News).

Members of the ChangeWave panel tend to be more tech savvy than average consumers. The group is made up of 9,000 business, technology and medical professionals who are working on the front line of technological change.

"In a world where a 1% market share change represents $2 billion in sales, we're forecasting a historic market share shift in the PC space for laptops and desktops with these new Intel-based Macs," said Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave Research and editor of ChangeWave Investing. "Market share grabs like this just don't happen in the PC world. Our numbers say that the Mac is surging."

Apple's share of laptops bought July-September was up 3 percentage points to an all-time high of 12% among alliance members. Its share of desktops purchased the past 90 days fell 4 points to 7%. In the next six months, Apple's share of all planned desktop purchases is up 4 points to 18%. Its share of planned laptop purchases is down 2 points to 17%.

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