Mac sales reach record high as unrelenting iPad slide continues

Apple yesterday said it sold a record number of Macs in the September quarter, dealing out 5.7 million machines to customers worldwide.

With those sales, the Mac reached a major milestone for the first time -- sales of 20 million or more machines in an Apple fiscal year -- by logging a total of 20.6 million over the last four quarters.

Mac unit sales were up 3.4% from the same period the year before, when Apple sold a then-record 5.5 million systems. The September quarter was the eighth consecutive quarter of growth; the last time Mac sales shrunk was in 2013 at the end of a one-year downturn.