Apple’s iPad Not Affecting Mac Sales, But iPods See Decline

When Apple first launched the iPad, there was mass speculation as to what was going to happen to sales of its desktops and notebooks, but as recent reports show, the company’s sales continue to roll along just fine. Sales of the desktop Macs and MacBook’s haven’t seen a drop, but rather an increase, and according to analyst firm Piper Jaffray, sales are only prepped to continue going up during the remaining two quarters of the year.

While Macs and iPhones haven’t seen a decline in sales, the iPod surprisingly has. It seems that many who are purchasing an iPad either own an iPhone that doubles as an iPod, or simply use their iPad for music, negating the need for a specific media player. The drop in sales isn’t minor though… and at 17%, you could almost consider it a plummet.

Apple has nothing to worry about though, as its other product-lines continue to see nice growth, and if people are purchasing iPads instead of iPods, then that’s generating a lot more revenue for the company (up to 4x based on median values). Also, as sales of Macs have increased, it was only the MacBook Pro line-up that has recently seen some updates. The rest of Apple’s computer line-up are likely to see similar updates during the summer.

If one thing’s certain, it’s that Apple has grown at a tremendous rate over just the past two years, and if the same rate continues, the company’s market value is bound to almost match Microsoft’s before the year is over. This, from a company that was once considered to be heading toward a certain demise!

The strong early showing in April bodes well for Mac sales for the quarter. Apple sold just under 3 million Macs last quarter, a 33 percent increase year-over-year for the fiscal second quarter. Munster is predicting growth between 19 and 23 percent for the fiscal third quarter ending in June, meaning Apple could sell between 3.1 million and 3.2 million Macs. From the raw numbers, the iPad doesn’t appear to be affecting Mac sales at all.