Forrester’s recent analyst report that suggested that Apple’s iTunes sales had flatlined has generated a great deal of skepticism and controversy. Forrester reported that iTunes sales had dropped 65% between January 2006 and June 2006.

Others have a much more positive outlook on Apple’s digital music store. Apple flatly denies Forrester’s claims, while other analysts are bullish on Apple’s iTunes Store prospects.

“As Mark Twain might have said, the rumors of iTunes’ death have been greatly exaggerated,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks.

“In contrast to a recent research report indicating that iTunes sales have declined by 65 percent, comScore data show that iTunes sales actually grew 84 percent during the first three quarters of 2006 versus year ago,” added Fulgoni. “This growth rate aligns closely with Piper Jaffray’s recent estimate of 78 percent growth in the number of iTunes songs downloaded.”

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a research report that the number of songs sold per week on iTunes had risen 78 percent in the first nine months of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005.

“Contrary to recent reports suggesting sales on iTunes are declining rapidly, our analysis of Apple company data shows strong growth year over year. With less than 5% of music purchased online, this market will go through massive growth in the next several years,” said Munster.

Here are the details of comScore’s analysis:

Sales of iTunes
(Q1-Q3, 2006 vs. Q1-Q3, 2005)
—————————–
Revenue: +84%
Number of Buying Transactions: +67%
Dollars Spent Per Transaction: +10%

Unique Visitors to the iTunes Application*
——————————————
Nov-06: 20.8 million unique visitors
Nov-05: 11.3 million unique visitors
Pct Chg: +85%

* Includes only active usage over the Internet

Source: comScore Networks, Inc.

Apple is expected to sell about 17 million iPods over the holidays.