While Apple hasn’t released figures of their own on the MacBook Air’s first quarter of availability, an analyst who has kept close watch on the new, diminutive notebook claims that the company has already shipped 1.1 million during the fourth quarter of 2010, another successful product launch for Cupertino.
AppleInsider is reporting that the new 11- and 13-inch MacBook Air models got off to a boffo start in the fourth quarter of last year with sales topping as much as 1.1 million units in their first three months of availability. According to Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new ultra-thin notebook could very well be “one of the company’s most successful Mac product launches ever.”
Apple doesn’t break down its Mac sales by product family, citing “competitive reasons,” although the company did announce shipments of just over 2.9 million Mac notebooks in the fourth quarter of 2010. Assuming Kuo’s 1.1 million figure is correct, the MacBook Air took up 40 percent of the company’s notebook sales, and just over 25 percent of the entire Mac business.
While the MacBook Air shipment numbers have since fallen to just under 700,000 units by Kuo’s estimates, the analyst figures that Apple is still on track for “a new Mac sales record” during the first quarter of this year, buoyed by strong sales of the recent MacBook Pro refresh.
Kuo’s discussions with Apple suppliers “indicate the company’s build plans call for the manufacture of upwards of 4.5 million Mac systems during the three-month period ending March,” which means the Cupertino-based Mac maker is likely to stand out as the only PC vendor worldwide with “material growth on a quarter-to-quarter basis,” according to Kuo.
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