Signs are beginning to trickle out from analysts who examine the flow of merchandise coming out of Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) that Apple is already well into an expectations-beating holiday quarter. Just this November it's estimated that some 300,000 MacBooks have moved off the shelves.

Clearly the Zune is not going to challenge iPod holiday sales. At best it's come a distant second, with some claiming that the Zune is sinking from that spot if you monitor Amazon interest as a benchmark. Even if Zune beats out the iPod in years to come, it won't be happening this Christmas season. iPod and particularly iPod Shuffle sales will probably be as strong as any other holiday season.

And then there's a surprising X-factor. Needham & Company's analyst Charles Wolf thinks they've been too conservative about the effect of switchers to Apple due to Apple's ability to run Windows as well using Bootcamp. As a result Needham's target price for Apple has been raised from $90 to $115 to take it into account.

Tobias Buckell is a freelance writer, author, and professional blogger. He owns Apple stock.

Soon Apple users may be able to run Windows applications straight on their computers using a piece of software called WINE. Apple computers right now, with the new Intel chips that are inside of them, can run Windows directly using Bootcamp. This involves installing a copy of Windows on the computer and having to reboot it. Parallels desktop for the Apple is even slicker, you can install any other operating system and run it at the same time as you're in Apple's operating system.

With almost half of Apple's new customers this year via the retail stores being switchers, software that makes the transition important is of importance. Bootcamp and Parallels are probably a big part of the reason switchers feel comfortable making a jump. Many have a piece of software or two that they're wedded to that runs on Windows, or that maybe they haven't yet found an analog to on the Mac.

And WINE offers something that may be of even more interest to Apple switchers. WINE is a layer of code that allows you to just run a Windows program without needing to book Windows at all. If you have a copy of MS Project that your company requires you to run, you'd be able to just book Project up and use it, while still working on the Apple as normal. It's another attractive way to smooth the concerns people would have in switching, and the more ways Apple as a platform can do that, the better chance it has.

[Disclosure: I own Apple stock at the date of this post]