In a note to clients — as reported by “AppleInsider” (www.appleinsider.com) — Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says Apple will sell 4.8 million Macs during the holiday quarter. That’s down 7% year-over-year.

Munster bases the figures on data from the NPD research group (www.npd.com). The figures suggest Mac sales were down 40% when compared to September. That’s a normal seasonal trend as back-to-school sales end, Munster said.

A year ago, Apple set a new record by selling 5.2 million Macs in the December 2011 quarter. That represented a 26% increase from the same period in 2010.