MacBook refresh giving overall Mac sales a boost

The new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models that appeared on June 11, 2012 helped overall Mac sales during the remainder of the month, according to NPD sales data reported by John Paczkowski at AllThingsD.

During the month of June, Mac sales grew 1 percent year over year. While that doesn't sound like much, sales had fallen 13 percent in April and 23 percent in May. For Apple's complete 3rd quarter ending June 30, 2012, Mac sales are still down 10 percent from a year ago. However, Paczkowski believes that the recovery from the 23 percent decline in May is a positive sign.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster agrees, saying that "the refreshed Macs will enable Apple to sustain a better growth profile in the U.S. through the back-to-school season." Munster is expecting Apple to ship 4.1 million Macs for the quarter as well as 16 million iPads, both of which are in line with the expectations of other Wall Street analysts. However, Munster's bullish on the iPhone, expecting sales of 28-29 million units for the quarter. The rest of the Street is expecting sales in the 25-27 million unit range.

Be sure to join TUAW for our 3rd quarter earnings call liveblog on July 24.