Apple sales slow in November

"Some nicks have started to emerge"

16 December 2008 14:25 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Apple's recent run of sales success appears to be coming to an end.

Although the company has outpaced the PC market this year despite its arguably high priced products, it has showed "weakness" in November, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Sales of Macs in the US have dropped 1% from a year ago, while industry-wide PC sales rose 2%, NPD figures reveal.

NPD report there's been a 35% drop in sales of desktop Macs, although Apple laptops are said to be still outpacing rivals.

Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey has cut his estimate for Apple's profit next year, stating "some nicks have started to emerge".

And Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster suggests that cheap netbooks are damaging Apple's sales, saying: "What you're seeing in the numbers is price sensitivity with the consumer".

As this news hits, rumours abound as to what Apple might announce at its January Macworld event with a smaller, cheaper iPhone and a revamped Mac mini - Apple's affordable desktop - tipped for launch.

Full tags

Biz, Hardware, Apple, Statistics