Apple 2.0

Covering the business that Steve Jobs built

Black Friday head count: 14.8 iPads per hour, up 68% y-to-y

November 28, 2011: 5:30 AM ET

Macs walked out of Apple Stores at the rate of 10.1 per hour, up 23% from 2010

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster spent the day after Thanksgiving as he has every year since 2008: standing in an Apple (AAPL) retail store counting sales. The results are summarized in the chart at right (typo his).

His observations:

  • In eight hours, he (or his team) watched iPads and Macs walk out the door at the rate of 14.8 and 10.1 per hour, respectively.
  • The 68% increase in iPad sales from 2010 he observed is lower than the 84% annual growth he's predicting for the quarter. He expects iPad sales overseas to make up the difference.
  • The 23% increase in Mac sales he observed is in line both with the 25% he's predicting for the quarter and with the 19% increase NPD reported for the first month of the quarter.

Bottom line: Munster remains "comfortable" with his estimate that Apple will sell 13.5 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs in the quarter that ends Dec. 31.

UPDATE: In a separate note, Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore reports that the iPhone 4S was selling so briskly on Black Friday that about 75% of the Apple Store he called ran out of one model or another. Apple replenished supplies overnight and the next day only 30% of the stores reported iPhone 4S stockouts.

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About This Author
Philip Elmer-Dewitt
Philip Elmer-Dewitt
Editor, Apple 2.0, Fortune

Philip Elmer-DeWitt has been covering Apple since 1982, first for Time Magazine, and now on the Web for Fortune.com.

Email | @philiped | RSS
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