Analyst: Pro Mac Sales to Get a Big Boost From CS3 Launch

March 4th, 2007 at 2:00 PM - Apple Stock Watch by Jeff Gamet

Sales of Appleis Pro-level Macs will get a boost after Adobe ships its Creative Suite 3 package - most likely some time in late April, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. "Our surveys of Apple pro users suggest CS3 will be a measurable catalyst for Apple," he said.

Adobe is officially announcing its Creative Suite 3 product line on March 27. Historically, the company has shipped products about three weeks after announcing them, which puts the ship date around the end of April, leaving two more months to sell Macs in the June quarter.

Mr. Munster speculated that about 15 percent of pro-level Mac and Adobe product users are likely to purchase a Mac Pro or MacBook Pro after the CS3 release. If correct, that would add an additional 450,000 units sold for the June quarter, resulting in about a 13 percent upside.

Since Appleis pro-level computers also carry a higher margin than the rest of the Mac product line, that also translates into a better bottom line for the company.

Mr. Munster is rating Appleis stock as "Outperform," and maintaining his US$124 target price. Apple is currently trading after hours at $86.36, up 0.401 (0.05%).

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