Macs walked out of Apple Stores at the rate of 10.1 per hour, up 23% from 2010
Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster spent the day after Thanksgiving as he has every year since 2008: standing in an Apple (AAPL) retail store counting sales. The results are summarized in the chart at right (typo his).
His observations:
- In eight hours, he (or his team) watched iPads and Macs walk out the door at the rate of 14.8 and 10.1 per hour, respectively.
- The 68% increase in iPad sales from 2010 he observed is lower than the 84% annual growth he’s predicting for the quarter. He expects iPad sales overseas to make up the difference.
- The 23% increase in Mac sales he observed is in line both with the 25% he’s predicting for the quarter and with the 19% increase NPD reported for the first month of the quarter.
Bottom line: Munster remains “comfortable” with his estimate that Apple will sell 13.5 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs in the quarter that ends Dec. 31.
UPDATE: In a separate note, Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore reports that the iPhone 4S was selling so briskly on Black Friday that about 75% of the Apple Store he called ran out of one model or another. Apple replenished supplies overnight and the next day only 30% of the stores reported iPhone 4S stockouts.
