Recession hits Mac sales

The current recession is beginning to harm Apple's US sales, writes the NPD Group. The research firm notes that in tracking November sales of Macs, numbers actually declined 1 percent year-over-year, while the computer industry as a whole grew 2 percent. Apple has generally seen continuous growth in recent years, and the trend was poised to continue until the development of the credit crisis in September.

Sales of desktop Macs dropped 35 percent in November, and Apple's situation might have been worse if its notebook sales had not continued to grow faster during the month than those of rival PC makers. These sales were likely spurred in part by the shipment of new unibody MacBooks, which represented a long-awaited hardware refresh.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster blames Apple's decline on intense competition from Windows computers, which have seen sharper discounts than any Mac system during recent weeks, sometimes as large as several hundred dollars versus Mac cuts closer to $100 or less. Apple may also be threatened by the popularity of Windows- or Linux-based netbooks, which cost only $300 to $500 on average and have no equivalent in the Mac world. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has generally refused to contemplate the prospect of a netbook, saying that "we [Apple] don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk."

Munster continues to believe in good prosects for the company however, and says he is expecting Apple to increase Mac shipments by 10 percent next year while the surrounding industry drops 5 percent.

by MacNN Staff