The NPD Group’s latest numbers on domestic Mac sales shows that sales are about even year-over-year for the month of April. One analyst sees that as a potentially positive thing for Apple.
Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray revealed the latest figures from NPD in a note to investors on Monday. He said the fact that Mac sales were flat year over year is a neutral to slight positive sign for Apple.
Munster’s own forecast has called for total worldwide Mac sales for the June quarter to be down about 5 percent year over year.
However, as the NPD tracks domestic sales, and a larger percentage of Macs are being sold overseas, Munster says it’s becoming more difficult to draw conclusions from NPD’s data. March saw NPD’s numbers for U.S. Mac sales down 8%, while Apple’s official worldwide sales numbers were up 7% for the same period.
Munster also sees the Mac as becoming a “less meaningful piece of the Apple story,” as profits for the Cupertino company are now driven mostly by the iPhone and iPad.
Apple is widely expected to introduce new MacBooks featuring Intel’s latest Haswell processors at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. New MacBook models always boost sales numbers for the company, however the effects of such a product launch may not be felt until after the June quarter concludes.
