Piper Increases iPod Estimate, Macs Grab 14% Market Share

      The latest NPD Group data was just released highlighting positive trends for Apple products. Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray has done an analysis and says the data “suggest the company will sell 9.7 million to 10.5 million iPods in the March quarter”. While that figure is higher than his estimate of 9.5 million to 10.3 million units released a month ago, “the new range is below the Street consensus of 10.8 million, and his own current estimate of 11.3 million”. So the new expected unit sales numbers are above his previous prediction and below his current one. Sounds like he can’t decide whether to believe iPods will surprise or disappoint this quarter.

     In the same NPD Group release, Macs accounted for a 14 percent unit share of all US computer retail sales in February. That number represents 60 percent unit growth and 67 percent revenue growth over the same period last year. Both Apple notebooks and desktop systems grew in overall retail segment shipments while US PC retail shipments grew modestly in comparison.

D.S.