Regarding NPD’s Estimate of Mac Sales

This report from NPD last week was widely reported:

U.S. retail sales of Apple’s Mac computers fell 16 percent in February on a unit basis, even as low-cost netbooks helped Windows-based PCs sales rise 22 percent, research group NPD said on Monday.

It’s never been clear to me why reports like this are reported as fact. NPD doesn’t have some sort of magic access to Apple’s sales numbers, and Apple does not release monthly sales data. My understanding is that everyone who believes these numbers from NPD will be pleasantly surprised next month when Apple releases its actual sales figures for the current quarter.

★ Tuesday, 24 March 2009