Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Mac sales to set another record, says analyst

Apple will post fourth-quarter sales of 3.3M Macs, up 31% over 2008

Apple will report selling another record number of Macs in the final quarter of 2009 when it unveils its financial figures later this month, a Wall Street analyst said Thursday in a note to clients.

Brian Marshall, of BroadPoint AmTech, estimated total Mac sales at 3.3 million units for 2009's fourth quarter. If Marshall's calculations are accurate, it would mean Apple broke the record sales of 3.05 million Macs set in the year's third calendar quarter by 249,000 machines, an increase of 8.5%.

Year-over-year, Marshall's estimate of 3.3 million Macs would be a 31% increase from the 2.3 million systems Apple sold in the fourth quarter of 2008. That kind of gain would be a return to Apple sales trends during 2008, when the company racked up impressive year-over-year increases ranging from 21% in the third calendar quarter to a whopping 51% in the first quarter.

Assuming Apple beats the industry average growth again in the fourth quarter of 2009 -- as seems certain, even if Marshall's estimate is on the high side -- Apple's sales will have outpaced the average in 20 out of the last 21 quarters. The one exception: The first quarter of 2009, when Apple failed for the first time since 2003 to boost Mac sales year-over-year.

According to Gartner Research, global computer sales will grow by just 2.3% during 2009.

Marshall also joined other analysts in predicting a resurgence of Apple's desktop sales by pegging the company's sales for the fourth quarter at 865,000 units, a year-over-year increase of 19% and a quarter-over-quarter gain of 10%.

Earlier in December, retail research firm said that sales of Apple's desktops -- the iMac, Mac mini and Mac Pro lines -- were up 74% during October and November in the U.S. At the time, analyst Stephen Baker of NPD credited the revamped iMac for the sales surge.

Apple unveiled the new 21.5- and 27-in. iMacs -- the latter available with quad-core Intel processors for the first time -- on Oct. 20. Since then, however, questions have cropped up about the 27-in. iMacs' graphics cards and displays, with large numbers of customers reporting flickering screens , a problem multiple authorized resellers said resulted in Apple's decision to delay shipping the largest, most expensive models.

Apple will issue its official sales numbers for the fourth quarter in the second half of January during an earnings call with financial analysts.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld . Follow Gregg on Twitter @gkeizer , send e-mail at gkeizer@ix.netcom.com or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed .

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: 3M, Apple, Gartner, Gartner Research, Intel, Macs, Microsoft, Wall Street
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: wall street, PC sales, apple mac
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • 10 Essential Steps to Web Security
    This short guide outlines 10 simple steps to best practice in web security. Follow them all to step up your organisation’s information security and stay ahead of your competitors. But remember that the target never stands still. Focus on the principles behind the steps – policy, vigilance, simplification, automation and transparency – to keep your information security bang up to date.
    Learn more »
  • Enterprise Buyers Guide for Cloud Storage
    Customer interest in public cloud storage is increasing, driven by the promise of affordable, elastic storage for archiving, backup/recovery, and disaster purposes. To understand the types of offerings available and to assist buyers with purchasing decisions Computerworld has prepared a public cloud storage buyers guide.
    Learn more »
  • Case Study: NZ Bus Develops Applications 60% Faster, Improves Database Performance by up to 35%
    Key Benefits: Developed applications 60% faster, Created development and test environments in minutes compared to days and weeks previously, Reduced server costs by 30% with server virtualisation, Saved NZ$40,000 in database administrator training costs, Provided high availability features that keep the database and core applications up and running in the event of a server failure, Introduced compression capabilities that improved database performance by 30% to 35%. Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments

HP and IDG news, product videos and resources