View this article at: http://dev.macnn.com/articles/07/05/24/apple.growth.tops.industry
Thursday, May 24, 2007 12:50pm

Apple triples industry note...

Apple continues to dramatically outpace the industry in retail notebook sales, while iPod sales appear to be slowing, according to sales numbers from April. New research from NPD Group indicates that PC unit growth in April of 2007 rose 14 percent year-over-year, while notebook sales grew even faster -- rising 30 percent over the same period. Apple, however still managed to more than triple the industry growth by growing its retail Mac units 62 percent year-over-year this month and delivering a whopping 94 percent increase in retail notebook sales over the same period.

This growth highlights Apple's solid MacBook and MacBook Pro momentum, as well as increased distribution, according to UBS analyst Ben Reitzes. "Checks for Macs have been solid, backing our 25 percent unit growth estimate for fiscal third quarter 2007 which should also see support from recently updated MacBooks," said Reitzes. iPod sales slowed last month when compared to the same time a year ago, down 3 percent vs. a 33 percent growth in May. "While below the 19 percent (9.6 million units) we are modelling for fiscal third quarter, data doesn’t include international sales which could help support growth," the analyst said. "We also believe new products later in the year should drive future improvement."