February 20, 2009 by Mark Isle
As any economist will tell you, a recession is not a good time for sales of luxury goods – if you’re worried about losing your job, you’re unlikely to be filling your shopping trolley with fois gras and caviar. It would appear that this economic rule that has come back to bite Apple.
For years now, advertising gurus and brand consultants have been queuing up to praise Apple for branding their products as more than just computers, MP3 players, etc., lauding their ability to mark their products out as lifestyle accessories as well as functional tools. Up until now, this technique has proved instrumental in convincing people to pay over the odds to buy Apple goods, though now it would seem that this has marked them out as something ripe for cutting from their budget.
Sales of Macs have fallen six percent in the month of January representing the fact that whilst many people see computers as essential purchases, even in a recession, they do not necessarily have to be nice, shiny, expensive Apple computers. The company have done little to moderate the price of their systems in response to the credit-crunch. Practically their only concession being a sub $1000 dollar MacBook but in an age when PC laptops are available for half that price, they were always going to be in trouble.
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