The Mind of Alex

Personal computer sales are supposed to fall 6% this year, and grow by 10.3% in 2010. Not rosy, but an improvement from the previous analyst musings. Much of the reduction in losses this year, and the projected climb in sales comes from the netbook and broader subnotebook markets, with strong offerings from Asus still capturing the eyes of budget conscious consumers. The report this information comes from, found here, is centered on PC’s, discussing heavily the Windows 7 push, etc. How does this affect Apple?

Think that we are above the echo chamber?

Apple focuses its products on the upper level of the market, their cheapest laptop still costing $999. Yes, in fact, even the cheapest box that Apple will ship with you that has OSX on it will cost you 600. And that’s a desktop. With no monitor. Cheap PC makers will ship you more, for less. Point: Apple users have always been less price sensitive, being generally, more demanding computing users.

If computer shipping growth is going to be more and more focused on the lower end, cheaper, do-less-with-less netbook market, where does that put Apple? Apple surely has noticed the move across the PC market to cheaper computers, as we all noted in their recent WWDC updates. But if Apple never does release the oft-rumored Apple netbook, will that place them at a serious disadvantage? If consumers do not find it in them to move back up the computer food chain, at least a single notch, from sub to full notebooks, it would seem that Apple has a long road to finding growth again in their Mac line.

Surely, the Apple-devotees  will continue to purchase their beloved Macs, as I will continue to expand my collection of PC’s, but if Apple wants to expand market share, they will either have to expand their product line, or cut their prices again.