Using recent figures from the NPD research firm (http://www.npd.com) Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is predicting a continued upward swing in Mac sales in the months ahead.

"We expect the strong year-over-year growth in NPD data that we saw in January to continue in the month of February," he wrote in a note on Monday -- as noted by "TheStreet.com" (http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10697430/1/apple-dell-h-p-poised-f...). "We believe this represents a buying opportunity ahead of NPD data for the month of February on March 15."

Mac shipments climbed 33% during the first fiscal quarter of this year reaching 3.36 million units. This surpassed the prior quarter's then-record shipments of just over three million.

As noted by "TheStreet.com," Munster explained, however, that Apple experienced weak Mac sales in the first half of 2009, making its 2010 numbers appear particularly strong. Still, he expects the company to ship between 2.6 million and 2.8 million Macs in its seasonally weaker March quarter, compared to Wall Street's estimate of 2.6 million.