While the rest of the PC industry lost ground, Apple’s computer sales were growing
Once again, Mac sales zigged while PCs zagged.
In a note to clients Monday afternoon, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster summarized data from the NPD Group for the last quarter:
- In the month of March, U.S. Mac sales were up 47% year over year, driven by the new MacBook Pros that started shipping Feb. 24.
- That 47% uptick followed growth of 20% in January and 12% in February, for average of 27% over the first quarter of 2011.
- That stands in stark contrast to the 3.2% drop in worldwide sales reported last week by IDC.
Bottom line: Munster expects Apple (AAPL) to report Mac unit sales in the range of 3.6 to 3.7 million, ahead of the Street’s consensus of 3.6 million.
iPod sales in the U.S., meanwhile, were down 10% year over year in March according to NPD. Adding overseas sales, Munster gets an estimate somewhere between 9.8 and 10.3 million units for the quarter, slightly ahead of the Street’s consensus.
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