Edible Apple

Ahead of Apple’s upcoming earnings announcement, the folks on Wall St. are expecting strong iPhone and iPad sales but aren’t as optimistic when it comes to the Mac. Specifically, the consensus on Wall St. is that Mac sales will check in at 4.3 million units.

But stalwart Apple bull Gene Munster claims that low Mac sales might actually be a good thing and not a cause for concern amongst investors because consumers are merely waiting for anticipated upgrades to the Mac before diving in and making a purchase. Indeed, many are in fact waiting for Apple’s next-gen hardware sporting Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, a fact which Munster believes will send sales during Apple’s third fiscal quarter sky high.

In addition to hardware, there are strong rumblings that Apple in the next few months will deliver a completely redesigned line of MacBook Pros. New iMac hardware is expected sometime this Summer as well. And on the software side, there’s also the anticipated release of Mountain Lion.

Apple released a developer preview of Mountain Lion back in February and some of the highlighted features include Twitter integration, AirPlay mirroring, tighter iCloud integration, and a new notification center.

We’ll find out how Apple’s Mac sales stack up soon enough, but as implied by the above, even if Mac sales come in below expectations, it’s clearly premature to start worrying. If Mac sales take a dip in the face of a major hardware upgrade, well then maybe it’s time to take a step back and figure out what’s going on.

via Minyanville