Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster surveyed several Apple Stores on Black Friday and concluded that the iPad sales are inline with expectations, and that the multimedia tablet seems to be selling well with customers that historically have stayed away from the Mac.
The iPad is becoming “the Mac of the masses,” Mr. Munster said.
“We noticed that the iPad is gaining traction (driven by lower price versus the Mac) among demographics in which the Mac has historically not been successful,” he added. “The bottom line is that Apple’s addressable market is expanding with the iPad.”
Based on his research, Mr. Munster estimated Apple was selling 8.8 iPads per hour at the stores his team watched, according to Fortune. In comparison, those locations were selling about 8.2 Macs per hour.
Compared to his surveys in previous years, Mac sales are down. In 2009, Mr. Munster pegged Mac sales at 8.3 per hour, and at 13 per hour in 2008.
Chris Whitmore from Deutsche Bank conducted his own research among Apple Stores and Apple resellers. He came away with comments like “iPads are still selling like crazy,” and “the 11-inch MacBook Air has been flying off the shelves.”
Apple is currently trading at US$313.22, down 1.78 (-0.56%).