NPD data shows Apple on track to sell record 4.3M Macs in Dec. quarter
New November domestic sales data from the NPD Group was released Monday, and analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray said it shows Apple on pace to sell between 4.1 million and 4.3 million Macs in the December quarter. Early estimates have found that Apple's U.S. sales are up 20 percent year-over-year for the first two months of the quarter.
Munster has predicted sales of 4.2 million Macs in the quarter, and Wall Street averages are about the same. He noted that international Mac sales are growing faster than domestic, which means Apple will likely see between 22 percent and 28 percent year-over-year growth.
Because the NPD numbers show Apple about on pace to meet expectations, Munster said he views the figures as a "neutral data point."
Munster's forecasts for the quarter released Monday are identical to those he sent out in November, when the NPD Group revealed its estimates for U.S. Mac sales in October. Apple remains on track to exceed its previous financial quarter, when it sold a record 3.89 million Macs.
This quarter marks the first with sales of the new MacBook Air, Apple's thin-and-light notebook. Munster believes Apple will sell about 500,000 MacBook Airs in the quarter, compared with 1.2 million desktop iMacs.
As for iPod sales, the analyst said the NPD domestic data shows sales slightly ahead of his estimates. The analyst has called for iPod sales to dip about 8 percent year over year.
Munster said he expects Apple to sell between 18.5 million and 19.5 million iPods in the December quarter, about on pace with Wall Street's expectations of 19 million. He also noted that international iPod sales are a greater mix overall than with Macs, resulting in a higher margin of error.
In the last quarter, Apple sold 9.05 million iPods, a decline of 11 percent from the same period a year before.
20 Comments
I do worry a little (as an apple shareholder) about the declining iPod sales. I realize that it could be due to people replacing iPods with iPhones, in which case it's not a problem. But it could also be due to people being put off by the new nano. While I can see how the new nano form factor could be appealing, it really seems more like a "shuffle" form factor. The functionality of the previous nano no longer exists in the iPod line up at the same price point as the old nano. To get the functionality of a camera and video, you have to move up to the iPod Touch which is both more expensive and a physically larger device. It seems to me that Apple chose to abandon a piece of this market. Because of the growth of the iPhone it might end up not mattering, but I really hate to see them create any opportunities for competitors.
I do worry a little (as an apple shareholder) about the declining iPod sales. I realize that it could be due to people replacing iPods with iPhones, in which case it's not a problem. But it could also be due to people being put off by the new nano.
I do love the new Nano as the iPod Shuffle I?ve been wanting, but note the iPod decline started well before this new Nano arrived.
I'm surprised they are still selling as many iPods as they are. I bought a Nano and like it... never understood the point of a cheap video camera. It might signal that Appple is after a different social media interface device. I can see it being something different than a phone...
I do worry a little (as an apple shareholder) about the declining iPod sales.
The iPhone and iPod Touch are making the dedicated music players a bit more obsolete since most folks prefer not to have multiple gadgets.
I'm not too concerned about it for the moment. I think there will always be a market for iPods and Apple will continue selling them for the foreseeable future.
So long as people need something small and light for jogging, working-out, or even to use as a plug-in for a car stereo system (I do), Apple will continue being a major player in this market.
Good to see the Mac itself continuing to flourish amidst all the iPhone and iPad excitement.