Apple's retail notebook sales up 94 percent in April

According to NPD data cited by UBS Investment Research analyst Ben Reitzes on Wednesday, U.S. PC unit growth for the month of April grew 14 percent overall, include a 19 percent rise in retail sales and a 30 percent surge in notebook sales.

"Checks for Macs have been solid, backing our 25 percent unit growth estimate for [the company's fiscal third quarter] which should also see support from recently updated MacBooks," the analyst wrote in a one-page memo to clients.

Reitzes added that iPod sales were down 3 percent for the month of April, but noted the "difficult compare" to the year-ago period in which iPod unit sales were up 33 percent.

"While below the 19 percent (9.6 million units) we are modelling for [the] fiscal third quarter, [the NPD] data doesn’t include international sales which could help support growth," he wrote. "We also believe new products later in the year should drive future improvement."