Apple Inc (AAPL)

[KVW]

Merrill Lynch raised estimates based on the 2.7 million a week purchased songs rate. I wonder if ML will retract this, now that it seems the 5 million free songs were included. This means the download rate should be adjusted downward. Apple reported 50 million downloads as of March 11th. Subtracting out the 5 million means 15 million downloads in the last 7 weeks which is an average of less than 2.2 million a week. In the 50 million download press release, Apple said the rate was 2.2 million a week.

So, not much has changed really in the download rate in the last two months.

This is sort of a "pro forma" analysis and not a GAAP analysis.

Worse, Apple didn't make this clear yesterday, even to the analysts.

Methinks, Apple is trying to pull a fast one. As I usually chant to myself when bowling: Trust is a must, or your game is a bust. Apple management just lost a bit of respect from me.

Kevin