Mac sales growth up over 100 percent in January, says firm

In a brief research note distributed to clients on Thursday, the firm cited NPD market research data which implies that year-over-year growth in Mac unit sales accelerated in January to 101 percent, up from 55 percent in December.

Meanwhile, a rise in the average selling price (ASPs) of Macs is reported to have driven even greater year-over-year dollar sales growth of 108 percent during the same time period, again, up from 55 percent in December.

"Mac ASPs grew 4 percent in January on a year-over-year basis and 1 percent sequentially," wrote analyst Andy Hargreaves. "Apple's ability to maintain stable ASPs is a strong indicator of its brand equity and consumer demand, in our view."

Hargreaves said that sales of Mac notebooks grew 194 percent year-over-year in January with a rising ASP that drove 221 percent revenue growth in the segment.

"January was the third-largest revenue month for Mac notebooks ever," he added.

The analyst noted that over the past eight quarters, the first month of NPD data has been between 7 percent and 9 percent of Apple's quarterly Mac unit sales.

"If this relationship holds in fiscal Q2 (March), Mac sales would significantly exceed our Q2 estimate of 1.495 million units," he said.