Recession worries are to blame for a 6% drop in Mac sales in January, according to the research-firm NDP Group. Money tight consumers are turning away from Apple's desktops to buy up less expensive Windows PCs. NDP Vice President, Stephen Baker, told Macworld, "What we're seeing is that consumers are not buying based on value, they are buying based on price. Apple is selling value."
This comes despite the fact that last quarter's financial report was Apple's best ever, with a 9% increase in Mac sales and record revenues of over $10 billion.
So, if they aren't buying, what are all those people doing at the Apple store? Perhaps they are practicing for their next purchase of the rumored introduction of a quad-core iMac based on the Core 2 Quad CPU. While Steve Jobs has adamantly denied that Apple will ever get into the low-price computer market, it is certainly time for Apple to update their line of desktops. That just might be what Apple needs to produce the revitalization of sales to offset January's drop.
TonyChaos
February 22, 2009 at 7:40am
I can see how sales would drop substantially in these hard economic times, but to be blunt Apple is a behemoth. It will take a lot more than a 6% drop in sales to slow them down.
I plan on purchasing the white Macbook for school within the next few months and I don't plan on buying another Windows based computer.
doc2toxic
February 20, 2009 at 8:07pm
I want my first Mac, but I will wait until the new IMac shows up. If I'm going to spend allot of money, then I'll wait for the new IMac. Nothing will tick me off more than buying one now and then within a month or two, Apple decides to sell a newer version/ upgrade. I can handle dealing with this when it comes to a PC since newer models are out every week/month, but Apple tends to only update every 6-12 months, if your lucky. BTW... Hurry up please!
