Mac sales soaring

Apple’s flagship Mac brand is set to post record quarterly sales, according to a veteran Apple analyst.

Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray says based on figures for July and August from research firm NPD, Apple is set to sell between 4.4 million and 4.6 million Macs in the September quarter.

Driving the sales are the release of the new operating system, OS X Lion, in July, as well as refreshes of the MacBook Air and Mac Mini models launched at the same time.

Not doing so well is the iconic iPod. Munster says NPD’s figures indicate sales of the MP3 player will drop, although with more and more consumers using smartphones for their mobile music needs, it does seem like only a matter of time before the device which was so important to Apple’s resurgence is consigned to history.