Data from two leading research firms has cast doubt on claims that Apple's retail market share has reached 21 per cent.

In a release praising Apple's use of Firewire 800 ports on the new iMac, industry group 1394 Trade Association claimed that Apple's share in the consumer market had reached 21 per cent.

A 1394 Trade Association spokesperson confirmed the figure to vnunet.com, citing a CNBC report that also listed HP's consumer retail market share at 37 per cent and Dell's at 11 per cent.

The group contends that the figures are only for retail sales, though that would not account for an 11 per cent share from Dell, which does virtually all its business directly.

A spokesperson for CNBC could not be reached to confirm the figures, and vnunet.com could not find a report containing the referenced data on CNBC's website.

Data from other research firms, however, appears to contradict 1394 Trade Association's claims. IDC analyst Doug Bell told vnunet.com that his firm recorded Apple's consumer market share for all of 2006 at just 6.3 per cent, with HP's at 27.5 per cent and Dell's at 25.5. In the first quarter of 2007, Apple saw its market share grow, but only to 7.6 per cent. IDC does not yet have data from Q2.

Research firm Gartner also cast doubt on the possibility that Apple's market share had exploded. The firm did not yet have consumer-specific data for Q2 available, but the company did not have Apple among the top five in total sales.

Apple said that it sold 1.517m Macintoshes in Q2, representing just 2.5 per cent of the 61 million PC sales logged by Gartner. HP's market share was listed at 18.2 per cent and Dell's at 15 per cent.