Sign of bad, bad times
February 18, 2009 — Abigail Hamilton 
Here in TV-landia it’s easy to cling to the good industry news to avoid looking into the abyss. However.
Silicon Alley Insider reports on new research from NPD Group that Apple’s Mac business — which was growing 50% year-over-year a year ago — is now shrinking.
According to the WSJ, the dollar value of Apple’s sales through U.S. retail channels fell 11% during the month, faster than the decline in unit sales. Its market share, measured in dollars, declined to 13.7% from 16.4% in January 2008, NPD said. An Apple spokesman declined comment.
What that means is people are buying lower-end Apple computers:
Consumers interested in low- to mid-range portables have been gravitating toward Apple’s $999 laptop, its least-expensive model. Demand for the high-end models over $1,500 has been virtually unchanged over the past several months.
The average price of Apple computers stood at $1,480 for its laptops and $1,500 for desktops in January — more than twice as high as computers based on Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system.
This is sad to me, because the thing that separated Apple buyers from PC buyers has been a belief in the quality-of-life factor and value over price; spread over time, the upgrade to an Apple costs just a few cents a day worth of worthy enjoyment.
In a former job I declined to let an employer buy a computer for me because I felt a sense of pride and bonding with my Apple that made it worth it to me to use my personal machine unpaid as a work machine. And when the backlight element died, I bought a new Apple on my dime and repaired the old one to be a backup. Let’s just say I couldn’t do that now. Sad.
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