Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) makes amazing machines with the best design and the most clever marketing. However Apple does it, the company wraps the entire package from conception to post-sale in a way not many other companies can. Dare I say, no other company. That does come at a price, however. Apple prides itself in not making commodity equipment, even though the hardware used under the hood of many of their products is indeed commodity goods.Apple retail prices are significantly higher than the competition (if you want to call it that). In other words, Apple's products demand higher prices based on what I referenced in the first paragraph. Somehow, the company is so successful that it can grow its business - with higher prices in most cases - than the competition, and even in dire economic times. But, the company is not superhuman. Apple's Mac sales are nosediving just like the rest of the PC industry, signaling that even Apple is not immune to the incredibly harsh recession we're all in at the moment.
PC sales has hunkered down recently as more customers look for bargain basements to purchase. Run through any retailer and you'll probably find that laptop PCs (which are now outselling desktop PCs) selling the most are under the $700 price tag. Apple's current pricing can't even touch that price point, even though 27% of U.S. consumers surveyed by ChangeWave who indicated they would be buying a laptop PC in the next three months stated that purchase would be an Apple machine. So, in effect, Apple's incredible success can't just fly over current economic times. It's grounded in the mess like everyone else.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-05-2009 @ 3:14PM
Mitch said...
"Apple's Mac sales are nosediving just like the rest of the PC industry"
What are you basing this statement on?
2-05-2009 @ 4:15PM
Lurker28 said...
Poor writing, far too much of a bias towards macs. You are writing this as a fanboy, but you want to be taken seriously...it doesn't work. You have no references for your statements, which makes it appear like conjecture.
2-05-2009 @ 8:08PM
iphonerulez said...
I'm sure Apple sales are dropping but no more so than any other computer company sales. We have to look at this in a relative sense. If Apple's profit margins are higher, then they would still be making more revenue than any other computer company. You'd need to prove that Apple sales are sinking to a greater degree than companies such as HP or Dell or Acer.
Still, Apple can hold out longer due to the fact it has $28 billion dollars in reserve cash and deferred iPhone revenue coming in.
2-06-2009 @ 1:19PM
Beltway Greg said...
If anyone who reads this works with Kathryn Huberty please go into her office and pull her off of the ledge. Apple is about to break $100.