According to a new report from analyst Gene Munster and Piper Jaffray says that the latest data from NPD suggests that Apple will sell between 4.4 million or 4.6 million Macs in the September quarter. His figures are based on NPD’s U.S. data, which increased Mac sales up 22 percent in July and August.
Munster said that Mac sales in August benefitted from a month of Mac OS X Lion being available, after its launch in July. In addition, Mac sales were also up due to the newly refreshed MacBook Air and Mac mini models. He also estimates that the MacBook Air will represent between 10-20 percent of total Mac units in the September quarter.
Wall Street expects Apple to sell about 4.5 million Macs this quarter, which Munster said aligns with the latest domestic NPD data. Apple’s current quarterly record for Mac sales was set in the holiday quarter last year with 4.13 million Macs sold. Also, Wall Street expects Apple to report sales of about 7 million iPods, which would mean the company is trying to beat estimates on its portable media players.
NPD has also reported iPod sales down by 16% year-over-year for the first two months of the quarter.
