Never mind about the iPods and the IPhones, what’s up with Apple’s computers?

During the quarter, Apple shipped more than 1.7 million Macs, a 33-percent rise over the what it shipped in the third quarter of 2006 and 2.5 times the industry-wide growth rate published by market-research firm IDC.

More significantly, Apple’s third-quarter Mac sales marked a record for the company, topping the previous quarterly high of 1.61 million Macs shipped during the fourth quarter of 2006.

Much of the growth in Mac sales came from Apple’s laptop business. While there was a rise in desktop sales for the quarter—634,000 units compared to 529,000 for the same period in 2006—laptop unit sales skyrockected 42 percent to 1.13 million portables. All told, 64 percent of the Macs sold during the quarter were laptops.

The full report is here from MacWorld, Apple reports $818 million profit, record Mac sales.