Apple Mac Sales: Will Apple Mac Sales Rebound in the Months Ahead?

Apple Mac Sales: After Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac sales beat the PC market for 26 quarters in a row, the streak finally came to an end in December 2012. Although this was a disappointment, there is hope that things will turn around in the first quarter of 2013.

Apple is actually the smart money’s second favorite publicly traded company (see why it’s important to pay attention to hedge fund activity).

A piece by AppleInsider takes a closer look at how this is being viewed by analysts, more specifically Charlie Wolf of Needham & Co.

“The Mac’s sudden collapse in the December quarter was described as “astonishing” by analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham & Co. on Friday. He noted that Mac shipments fell below PC shipment growth in all geographic regions and segments in the quarter.’

In the article, Wolf is quoted as saying, “there was absolutely not one iota of positive news in the Mac shipment numbers

While the fourth quarter was just about as bad as you could imagine for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac products, the Cupertino-based company has a reason for this. They believe that that the decrease of 22.1 percent year over year is directly attributed to short supply of the popular iMac.

Is this true? If so, it is hard to imagine why Apple would not be ready for big sales during the holiday quarter – especially with a new iMac available.

Although Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has yet to fully catch up with demand, there are signs that things are moving in the right direction. The same AppleInsider article added the following:

“There are signs that iMac availability is improving, as the NPD Group reported this week that domestic Mac sales were up 31 percent year over year in the month of January. As a result, Wolf believes Apple could be in a position to surpass the overall PC market again in the current March quarter.”

It will be interesting to see if Mac sales are able to rebound during the first quarter of 2013.

One final note: there is a lot of competition from other companies, including the Microsoft Windows 8 operating system. This is something else that Wolf touched on, adding that Windows 8 will be “a major test” to the Mac.

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DISCLOSURE: I have no positions in any stock mentioned.

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