Analyst: Q4 iPod numbers to be below Street consensus

According to Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, iPod units will likely come in shy of Wall Street’s 8.6 million expectation when Apple releases its fourth quarter results next week. Citing sales data from NPD, the analyst now believes Apple will ship 8.2 million iPods during the quarter. “We have analyzed the first two months of NPD data (July & August) for the September quarter and found that it suggests iPod units of around 7.4 million. When the third month of data is released, our analysis will likely lead to a different iPod unit figure than what our analysis suggests based on the first two months of data, given data for the month of September will include data related to the new iPods that are now shipping. Given the new iPods that were just recently announced, we believe iPod units will end the quarter closer to Street expectations, but still shy of 8.6 million.”