It may be difficult with reports and rumors of a tablet whizzing by your eyes every day, but one analyst is bullish on Apple’s original product: the Mac. With 3.1 million Macs expected to be sold during the December quarter, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told investors Tuesday morning, 2010 is “The Year of the Mac.”
Munster said sales of Macs during the December period tracked by retail research firm NPD Group rose 26 percent compared to the previous year, topping the Wall Street consensus of 19 percent. The jump in expected annual growth prompted the analyst to estimate 3.1 million Macs were sold during the previous quarter, an increase from his previously-predicted 2.9 million Mac sales. If that figure holds up, it would beat the 3.05 million in Mac sales, Apple’s previous high water mark.
“While hype surrounding the expected tablet will be the focus of Apple long-term strategy, we believe we will see meaningful near-term upside from the Mac business,” Munster told investors.
In October, Munster predicted new iMacs and more affordable MacBook laptops would provide Apple a ‘tailwind‘ to buffer sagging desktop sales.
Ahead of Apple’s Jan. 25 revenue statement, Munster said he remains confident Apple will sell 9.3 million iPhones in the last quarter, a number higher than the 9.1 million consensus and helped by the introduction of expanded markets for the handset, including China, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
