That soft January 2009 growth rate comp helped January 2010 Mac sales grow an astonishing 36 percent year over year, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster observes in a research brief this morning. It’s likely, then, that an even softer February 2009 growth rate comp will do the same for February 2010 (see table below; click to enlarge).

“The month of Feb-09 was -16% y/y, the softest Mac comp we’ve seen since we began tracking the data 5 years ago,” Munster writes. “We expect the strong y/y growth in NPD data that we saw in Jan. to continue in the month of Feb.”

Munster continues to expect Mac sales ranging from 2.6 million to 2.8 million in first quarter of calendar 2010. That’s an 18 percent to 26 percent increase over the same period in 2009, which was down one percent year-over-year.

The latest, from China Economic News, claims the device is being prepped for a February debut at a price somewhere between $799 and $999. Supply chain sources tell the publication the tablet will be built around a 9.6-inch Wintek capacitive touch panel and a mystery processor engineered by P.A. Semi, the boutique semiconductor design company Apple acquired in 2008. DynaPack International Technology will supply batteries, which are said to be “long lasting.”

Finally, the Apple (AAPL) device is said to support the high-speed downlink packet access 3G protocol. Interesting, since this likely means the tablet is destined for AT&T’s (T) network, not Verizon’s (VZ), as had been previously rumored, and lends credence to predictions that Apple will extend AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity deal rather than allow it to lapse.

The latest, from China Economic News, claims the device is being prepped for a February debut at a price somewhere between $799 and $999. Supply chain sources tell the publication the tablet will be built around a 9.6-inch Wintek capacitive touch panel and a mystery processor engineered by P.A. Semi, the boutique semiconductor design company Apple acquired in 2008. DynaPack International Technology will supply batteries, which are said to be “long lasting.”

Finally, the Apple (AAPL) device is said to support the high-speed downlink packet access 3G protocol. Interesting, since this likely means the tablet is destined for AT&T’s (T) network, not Verizon’s (VZ), as had been previously rumored, and lends credence to predictions that Apple will extend AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity deal rather than allow it to lapse.

Yahoo claimed 20.6 percent of all U.S. search queries in February, according to comScore (SCOR).

But a year from now it will claim just 17.51 percent or less, its share gutted by the loss of deals that once made Yahoo’s the default search toolbar on new Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Acer PCs. With those spots now claimed by Microsoft Live Search and Google (GOOG), respectively, Yahoo stands to see an estimated decline of 15 percent in search traffic, according to some reports.

A nasty blow for a company with a search volume as long in decline as Yahoo’s. Nastier when you consider that a fair portion of that lost traffic will end up with Microsoft (MSFT), which will also be accruing traffic from a similar toolbar deal with Dell (DELL). And nastier still, because Yahoo (YHOO) is certain to lose premium advertising dollars if its market share dips below 20 percent.

Yahoo, of course, disputes such suggestions. And it insists the loss in traffic it will suffer from its failure to renew these toolbar deals won’t be as high as that 15 percent figure.

We’ll see, I suppose. As one former Yahoo search exec told Dow Jones, “[toolbar deals are] the cleanest driver of market share. It’s a really important way to get in front of people.”