The electronics manufacturer placed behind Target, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Amazon, according to a comScore report that analyzed online shopping trends the day after Thanksgiving.

“Apple has not historically been in the top five — in fact, this is the first time I can remember,” said Andrew Lipsman, an analyst at comScore, who added that Apple was “nipping at Target’s heels,” registering only a few percentage points lower in overall traffic.

The strong ranking backs up a report today by 9to5Mac that said Apple’s Black Friday sales were “off the charts.” According to its sources, Apple blew away forecasts by 7 pm, and broke records for its biggest sales day ever.

ComScore’s figures include both Apple’s site as well as iTunes, so any resulting sales would encompass both hardware and digital products, such as apps and videos.

Separately, Experian Hitwise ranked Apple as the 12th most-visited retail site on Black Friday. It said the company’s total visits jumped 42 percent compared to 2010.

In both of these circumstances, what’s notable is Apple’s apparent mind share among consumers.

Best Buy, like some other retailers, is trying hard this season to be the go-to source for Apple products, running new TV ads promoting the chain as a place to buy Macs, iPads and iPhones. But Apple was able to rival gigantic big-box retailers, which carry thousands of products, including their own.

That’s impressive, especially since its discounts are generally not.

Lipsman agreed: “Even though Apple does not provide the selection of products that you might find at a big box retailer, it is obviously top of mind when it comes to the most in-demand products, like the iPhone and iPad. Two of the biggest growth sectors right now are tablets and digital content downloads, and obviously Apple is extremely well positioned on both fronts.”

CEO Chris Gorog and president Brad Duea are both leaving Napster, which the big-box retailer acquired a little over a year ago.

“We began with a simple idea–‘legalizing Napster’–and spent almost a decade trying to perfect that dream,” Gorog wrote in a farewell post on the Napster blog.

“It wasn’t always easy,” he added. “We were criticized at times for ‘renting’ music. But we thought then–and still believe quite strongly–that we had a better approach to digital music. Why buy downloads–when for a small monthly fee you can have access to–everything? Well after a lot of years of chasing this dream of–unlimited access, anytime, anywhere–it seems to be catching on.”

Erm, not really. Napster had 760,000 subscribers in 2008. Today it has about 700,000. That’s not catching on, it’s holding on–for dear life. And, to be fair, the dream to which Gorog refers is a tough one to chase when your service doesn’t work on the dominant media hardware of the day, even after Best Buy (BBY) acquires you for $121 million.

At this point, Napster is caught in a nightmare reality in which its legal subscription service stagnates as rivals like Apple’s iTunes and Amazon (AMZN) continue to push it to the periphery of the digital music market.

Below, Best Buy’s statement on the “streamlining.”

As part of our ongoing efforts to accelerate our growth in digital entertainment, we are currently making changes to our Napster business unit. These changes are part of Best Buy’s efforts to streamline Napster’s executive structure and more effectively integrate Napster’s corporate activities into Best Buy.

As part of these changes, the positions of Napster CEO, currently held by Chris Gorog, and the position of president of Napster, currently held by Brad Duea, have been eliminated. Chris and Brad are moving on to pursue the next chapters in their careers. We deeply appreciate Chris’s and Brad’s contributions in building Napster over the years, and particularly their leadership this past year as we’ve welcomed Napster into the Best Buy family of brands.

Christopher Allen, previously Napster’s COO, has been named General Manager, Napster, reporting to Chris Homeister, SVP Merchandising Entertainment.

These changes will allow Best Buy to focus on creating new opportunities in both the digital music and digital video space moving forward.

This afternoon, Microsoft (MSFT) officially announced “Equipt,” a new package of low-end productivity software and hosted services. Essentially a subscription version of Microsoft Office, Equipt includes the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, as well as Office Live Workspace, Windows Live OneCare and an assortment of Windows Live tools. The price? $69.99 per year.

But you have to make a trip to Circuit City, which will begin offering Equipt exclusively on July 5 (great choice of partners, guys).

A trip to the local big-box retailer? Interesting way to transition software users from a purchase-to-own model to a subscription-based one. Then again, $200+ worth of software for $70 is a pretty compelling proposition. Assuming you’re not already using OpenOffice and NeoOffice, which are, you know, FREE.

This afternoon, Microsoft (MSFT) officially announced “Equipt,” a new package of low-end productivity software and hosted services. Essentially a subscription version of Microsoft Office, Equipt includes the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, as well as Office Live Workspace, Windows Live OneCare and an assortment of Windows Live tools. The price? $69.99 per year.

But you have to make a trip to Circuit City, which will begin offering Equipt exclusively on July 5 (great choice of partners, guys).

A trip to the local big-box retailer? Interesting way to transition software users from a purchase-to-own model to a subscription-based one. Then again, $200+ worth of software for $70 is a pretty compelling proposition. Assuming you’re not already using OpenOffice and NeoOffice, which are, you know, FREE.