Edible Apple

Everyone’s favorite Apple analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, has lowered his estimates for Apple’s 2009 earnings citing slower growth attributed to broader economic conditions and weak consumer spending.

AppleInsider reports:

Although there’s no evidence to suggest that Mac sales have slowed thus far, analyst Gene Munster cited “low visibility” into next year’s environment as reason to adopt a conservative approach and model Mac sales growth to drop from 43% year-over-year in 2008 to 10% year-over-year in 2009.

“The primary reason for our universe-wide estimate cuts is that the economic and consumer spending outlook has deteriorated significantly over the last month, which we expect to continue through 2009,” he wrote in a note to clients.

Specifically, Munster expects Apple to generate 2009 calendar year revenues of $41.22 billion on sales of 11 million Macs, 45 million iPhones, and 41.2 million iPods.  He maintains shares of Apple as a “Buy”, but lowered his 12-month price target from $250 to $235.