Economic crisis finally affecting Apple
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Dec 16, 2008 at 8:14am
Even Apple is beginning to suffer in this year’s dismal holiday season, and worries are mounting the recession will weigh on its business next year, reports the Wall Street Journal, citing info from the NPD Group.
Apple, which has outpaced the overall personal computer market this year despite its strategy of eschewing discounts, showed its first signs of weakness in November, the article says. Sales of Macs in U.S. stores last month declined one percent from a year ago, while industry-wide personal computer sales rose two percent, according to research firm NPD Group Inc., which tracks retail sales.
NPD analyst Steve Baker blamed a 35 percent drop in sales of desktop Macs, noting growth in Apple’s laptops still outpaced rivals. Also, some analysts are worried that sales will slow after the holidays as consumers pull back.
“For notebooks, there is a little extra value to consumers (to buy Apple). For desktops I’m not so sure,” NPD analyst Stephen Barker told Reuters. “To me the real story is the iMacs need a refresh.”
However, as noted by Silicon Valley Insider, this report is from one source and doesn’t include enterprise sales or overseas sales. Also, as SVI notes, it’s very tough to compare this November to last November as there were five fewer holiday shopping days. Apple should make up some ground in December.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 10,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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