December 16, 2008 by Simon King
It turns out there really is no one who’s immune to the recession. Like everyone else, Apple is suffering in the run up to and it doesn’t look much better moving into the New Year.
So far this year Apple had been re writing the rules, outperforming their rivals whilst stubbornly refusing to cut prices. However, as the recession tightens its grip and people start to feel the pinch they have increasingly started to shop around for deals and Apple’s unwillingness to cut prices has started to seem more like bloody mindedness than genius marketing. The damage for Apple is this. In the retail sector, sales of Macs are down 1% from this time last year, whilst PC sales are up 2%.
There are a few ways to look at the data. For example, the fall can largely be explained by a 35% drop in the sales of desktop Macs, whilst Apple laptops continue to outsell their rivals. However, there is no getting around the fact that Apple has paid the price of not offering significant discounts in times of economic turmoil.
However if you believe the Walmart rumours that is all set to change, with a $99 dollar iPhone on sale in the USA’s biggest supermarket. I guess no one’s above price slashing.
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