Unfortunately, only a few of those who enter actually buy something. But Munster says that's okay.

"The important point is this gravitational pull highlights that consumers' future buying intentions could be shifting to Apple from PCs," he wrote to clients. "If materialized, this shift should benefit Apple in 2008 and 2009."

On average, 462 people entered Apple stores each hour on Friday when the company was holding its 24-hour Black Friday sale, according to Piper Jaffray research. By Saturday evening, however, that number had fallen to about 241 people per hour.

During these times, Munster and his team observed the stores selling an average 5.3 Macs and 1 iPhone each hour, compared to 4.3 Macs and 1.3 iPhones during a similar round of checks back in August. The stores sold an average of 13 iPods per hour. Munster had no comparative data from Piper Jaffray's August checks, but said the sales mix seems to be favoring the higher priced models. Approximately 46 percent were iPod nanos, 19 percent were iPod classics, 19 percent were iPod shuffles and 16 percent were iPod touches.