Over the last 24 hours two big names in research have released figures for the PC industry, one putting Apple in third place the other just behind.

Gartner is reporting that Apple is sitting pretty at number three on the U.S. shipments chart shipping 8.5% of the countries PCs in the second quarter of 2008. That represents 38.1% growth over the same quarter in 2007 for Apple. The industry growth pace is said to be around 4.2%.

Although Gartner is placing Apple ahead of Acer in third place, IDC is putting the two companies in joint third position, giving Apple a 7.8% market share. IDC puts Apple’s year-over-year growth at 31.7% against an industry average of just 3.6%.

These figures just represent shipments in the U.S., Apple is yet to break into the top five vendors worldwide.