U.S. Mac Sales Flat in April as iPod Sales Continue to Slide

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster today released a brief report highlighting April data from market research firm NPD looking at Apple's U.S. Mac and iPod sales. The data shows Apple's Mac sales coming in flat year-over-year, and while Munster acknowledges that it has become increasingly difficult to extrapolate NPD's numbers to Apple's global sales performance, he views the latest data as "neutral to slight positive" relative to expectations for the company.

Based on the differences between NPD data and Apple reported Mac sales over the past few quarters, we note it is becoming more difficult to draw conclusions from NPD data (see table below). We note that some of the more recent supply issues with the redesigned Macs have impacted the Apple reported numbers over the past two quarters. At the end of the day, we believe this April data point is likely a neutral to slight positive given our expectation that iPads will continue to cannibalize Macs over the next few years.

Munster stands by his predictions of 5% year-over-year decline in Mac sales for the second quarter as customers await updated models and the PC market remains weak.

shop_mac_ipod
On the iPod side, Munster only briefly cites NPD data showing sales sliding 36% year-over-year, compared to the Piper Jaffray estimate of a 23% decline for the entire quarter on a worldwide basis. But with iPod sales now representing only about 2% of Apple's revenue, the impact of the continued decline in iPod sales as customers shift increasingly to smartphones will be negligible.

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
bsod

Crowdstrike Says Global IT Outage Impacting Windows PCs, But Mac and Linux Hosts Not Affected

Friday July 19, 2024 3:12 am PDT by
A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery...
iphone 14 lineup

Cellebrite Unable to Unlock iPhones on iOS 17.4 or Later, Leak Reveals

Thursday July 18, 2024 4:18 am PDT by
Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite is unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the capabilities of the company's mobile forensics tools and highlight the ongoing security improvements in Apple's latest devices. The leaked "Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix" obtained by 404 Media...
Apple Watch Series 9

2024 Apple Watch Lineup: Key Changes We're Expecting

Tuesday July 16, 2024 7:59 am PDT by
Apple is seemingly planning a rework of the Apple Watch lineup for 2024, according to a range of reports from over the past year. Here's everything we know so far. Apple is expected to continue to offer three different Apple Watch models in five casing sizes, but the various display sizes will allegedly grow by up to 12% and the casings will get taller. Based on all of the latest rumors,...
tinypod apple watch

TinyPod Turns Your Apple Watch Into an iPod

Wednesday July 17, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
If you have an old Apple Watch and you're not sure what to do with it, a new product called TinyPod might be the answer. Priced at $79, the TinyPod is a silicone case with a built-in scroll wheel that houses the Apple Watch chassis. When an Apple Watch is placed inside the TinyPod, the click wheel on the case is able to be used to scroll through the Apple Watch interface. The feature works...

Top Rated Comments

lilo777 Avatar
146 months ago
Mac computers remain the benchmark for computers. Nothing else comes close.

There is one problem with this statement: Mac computers always lag behind PCs in benchmarks.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Oletros Avatar
146 months ago
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster

Nuff said
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Four oF NINE Avatar
146 months ago
Mac computers remain the benchmark for computers. Nothing else comes close.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chirpie Avatar
146 months ago
I think the iPod's road will be harder and harder as time marches on. Everyone and their dog has a phone that, once they upgrade, you could hand it off to someone else, and even if that person doesn't use the functionality of the phone, they're still left with something that's essentially a top of the line iPod Touch.

Can you say nearing point of device saturation? ^_^;
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unggoy Murderer Avatar
146 months ago
There is one problem with this statement: Mac computers always lag behind PCs in benchmarks.
There's just one problem with this statement: Mac computers always lag behind PCs in benchmarks that don't really matter.

i.e. I know I'll get five hours out of my MacBook Pro at university. My old Dell laptop (three years old now) struggled to last two hours. My screen is of a significantly higher standard than almost every laptop out there. Build quality's top notch, incredible support, high re-sale value.

I don't care if your laptop can do the Egypt OpenGLES Offscreen render or whatever 12% faster than my MacBook. I know for a fact Safari will be snappier for me than you can get it.

Also: Do some research (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Windows-Best-Laptop-Performance-Crashes-Windows-on-Mac,news-43703.html).
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lilo777 Avatar
146 months ago
I'm probably repeating myself...

As usual, lilo tries putting a negative spin on things, and as usual, she fails. Most cheap laptops that are sold come with the absolute bottom line of Intel or worse AMD processors. For example, Dell doesn't sell anything with quad core processors that is cheaper than a MacBook Pro with Retina display.


Dell sells cheap laptop. So what? If you talk about benchmarks, Dell's top of the line laptops (mobile workstations) easily beat Mac Book Pros.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)