In a note to clients today, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster expects Mac sales for the current fiscal quarter to beat the Street's estimates and anticipates iPod sales will meet those estimates. He bases his prognosis on data from the NPA research group.

Munster says that NPD retail data points to sales of 2.8 to 2.9 million Mac units sold for the March quarter. The Street estimate is 2.7. Munster is forecasting Mac unit growth of 26 to 315 year-over-year.

The analyst adds that NPD data points to sales of nine to 10 million iPods for the March quarter., compared to a Street consensus of under nine million. He's predicting a 7% percent increase in year-over-year sales.