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Mac sales poised for record-breaking quarter

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macbook-air-osx-lionThe recent arrival of Mac OS X Lion and refreshed MacBook Air and Mac mini models could translate to around 4.5 million Mac sales this quarter, according to a new report on the Cupertino company’s marketplace performance.

Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray said this week that he expects the current 22-percent surge in Mac sales to drop in September, but stay strong enough for the company to break its previous single-quarter record. The previous record was set in the holiday quarter of 2010, when 4.1 million Macs were sold.

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Munster’s figures are based on data from research firm NPD, which tracked Mac sales in July and August. In July, sales reached a high of 26 percent over the previous year, though Munster expects that number to level out in the current month.

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The chief reason for the surge in sales reportedly rests on the shoulders of Mac OS X Lion, which arrived in July and broke many of the previous records for Mac operating systems.

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Rick Marshall
Rick Marshall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
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