Apple sold 1.24 million Macintosh computers during the quarter comprising 667,000 desktops and 587,000 notebooks/laptops, figures up 20 percent from the year earlier period.  Notebook sales accounted for $812M in revenue, up 34 percent from the same quarter last year.  Desktop sales accounted for $912M in revenue, down 9 percent. Overall, Macintosh computer sales accounted for 41 percent of the company's total revenue in the quarter.

Macintosh sales exceeded the company's internal expectations in the quarter. According to Tim Cook, Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Apple saw "a bit of a pause" in the holiday quarter associated with the transition to Intel microprocessors. "We did see what we think was a bit of a pause from some customers associated with the Intel transition."

Cook also stated that Apple was “very pleased with customer and analyst response to our new Intel based Macs.” The first Intel based iMac and MacBook Pro were unveiled at last week’s Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.  Cook said that Apple may end the current quarter with an inability to meet demand for the MacBook Pro.

The strong Mac sales lead me to believe that more consumers and businesses are making the switch and that the trend will gain momentum during 2006 as Apple completes its transition of the Mac line to Intel Corp processors.  I expect Apple to add a significant number of users to it's base and to expand its market share.