Demand for Apple’s iPod is expected to only slightly dip from the record-breaking holiday quarter, according to Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster. Citing research from Apple resellers and unit shipment data from NPD, the analyst says that iPod demand may exceed his firm’s previous estimates. Munster says he expects Apple to ship 9.3 million iPods during the March quarter.
“Our checks with Apple specialist resellers last week indicated that they are not experiencing a significant slowdown in Mac sales,” Jaffray says in a note to clients, and “iPod availability is significantly better than it was during the December quarter, while iPod demand is only down ‘slightly,’ not ‘significantly’ from Dec-05 to Mar-06. Additionally, our preliminary analysis of iPod unit shipment data from NPD leads us to believe that Apple is on track to meet or slightly exceed our iPod unit assumptions.”
