ChangeWave: Apple Sales Prepped for New Highs

by , 3:55 PM EST, December 11th, 2007

ChangeWave Research published its research findings for PC market trends in 1Q/FY08 on Tuesday and found that Leopard has Macintosh sales rolling and Macs sales are set to hit all-time highs.

ChangeWave surveyed 3,872 consumers Oct 29th through Nov 5th and 1,964 corporate users Nov 12th through Nov 23rd.

In summary, ChangeWave said, "Apple (AAPL) computer sales continue to show strong consumer momentum. Not only is Apple maintaining the highest satisfaction levels among all manufacturers, but consumer purchases over the next 90 days look exceptionally robust – as seen in the chart below."

Chart from ChangeWave Research

"Importantly, nearly one-in-four respondents (24%) say that the release of Apple’s new Leopard operating system makes them More Likely to buy a Mac in the future," the report continued.

On the corporate side, ChangeWave said that sales there also appear set to reach new highs. The chart below shows that the number of corporate customers planning to buy either a Mac desktop or notebook has doubled in the last 24 months.

Chart from ChangeWave Research

"Over the next 90 days, Mac laptop and desktop sales to consumers will remain the biggest growth story in the PC industry – driven in part by the new Leopard operating system. Moreover, Apple’s corporate market share is increasing as well," ChangeWave concluded.

On the PC side, Dell's slide seems to have bottomed out. However, ChangeWave noted, "...we believe the data should be interpreted cautiously, as Dell has previously shown signs of stabilizing among consumers (e.g., Jan 2007) only to resume its downward spiral in the following survey."