By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 12:00 PM EST

Apple Inc. during the first quarter of 2007 broke into the top-10 server brands with its Xserve line, stepping over China-based Langchao, which fell from the rankings, according to the latest data from market research firm IDC.

The IDC report, cited by DigiTimes, indicates that Acer, Hitachi and Apple took eighth, ninth and tenth position with shipments of 14,900, 9,000 and 8,700 units, and on-quarter shipments growth of 5 percent, 26 percent and 73 percent, respectively.

Hitachi replaced China-based Lenovo, which joined Langchao in falling out of the top 10, according to the report.

Overall, worldwide server shipments in first quarter declined 11 percent on a quarterly basis as shipments from Dell and IBM -- ranked second and third -- fell 3 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

Seasonal effects, Intel's schedule to cut CPU prices in July, and AMD's plans to launch its native quad-core processor (Barcelona) in the second half of 2007 are all reported to have contributed to the drop in shipments.

Apple's launching of its fifth generation Xserve with Intel Dual Core Xeon processors is said to have boosted its growth in the server sector, as several enterprises began adopting the Mac-based enterprise machines.

Although Lenovo and Langchao did not list in the top-10 brands in first quarter 2007, their shipments still held level compared to the previous quarter, according to DigiTimes' sources. Those sources added that the reason Hitachi and Apple surpassed the China-based makers was due to their large on-quarter shipment growth.