Apple Computer Inc. shares rose to a four-year high as demand for the iPod digital music player surges before the year-end shopping season, erasing the slump triggered in September 2000 by a disappointing profit forecast.

Shares of Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple rose $1.05 to $53.50 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading, the highest since September 28, 2000, the day before Apple stock lost half its value amid lower-than-expected sales of Macintosh computers.

The chief executive, Steve Jobs, 49, may sell 2.68 million iPods in the December period, almost four times the year-earlier total, said Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Steven Milunovich. Demand for the music players, which let users download, store and play thousands of songs, made Apple the second-best performing stock in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index this year.

“The iPod is all the rage it seems,” said John Buckingham, president of Al Frank Asset Management in Laguna Beach, Calif., which manages $500 million. “There’s certainly a lot of momentum behind Apple and we think earnings will be better than what analysts are expecting and so there’s even more room to go.”

Mr. Buckingham, who bought the stock at $14, said he sold about one-third of his 102,000 Apple shares last week. The stock has more than doubled this year.

Apple said last month sales will rise to as much as $2.9 billion in period that ends Christmas Day, as gift buying fuels a “marked increase” in iPod shipments and customers snap up a new version of the iMac computer released in September.

Fiscal first-quarter profit will be 39 cents to 42 cents a share, exceeding analysts’ estimates.

Mr. Jobs last week unveiled a new version of the music player that stores color photos and a special-edition black-and-red iPod designed with Irish rock band U2.

The company already sells a “classic” white iPod and a “mini” version, released in February, that’s available in five colors.