The Apple Recession

As most people agree, Apple is a company leading the herd into new realms, discovering new technologies and new civilizations, boldly going where no company has gone before..ehem, I was just getting heated up a bit too much, but here's the story - while Apple is usually ahead of the industry, when it comes to the worsening global economy, they were a few steps behind.

Unfortunately, it seems not even Apple could escape recession completely, since their cooldown has started already, despite the excellent results shown by some of the latest sales reports. After countless years of pure ownage, Apple's retail outlets are finally coming down to earth, when compared to the other retail chains - or what's left of them, considering the recent events...

According to AppleInsider, "Apple's retail segment represented 17.1 percent of the company's total revenues for the three-month period ending December, down just 0.6 percent from the first quarter of fiscal year 2008. Non-Mac revenues (software, iPods, iPhones, accessories, service) helped offset lower Mac ASPs, rising 11.5 percent."

The above is not that interesting, since the operating margin of Apple's stores went down 17.4 percent year over year, despite the fact that 20.3 was almost the highest in their history.

Just as a final note - as long as estimations go as high as 12 million switchers from Windows to Mac since 2004, I am sure that, for Apple, recession will be almost sweet. After all, there are still plenty Windows users ready to take the big step, and if Microsoft's Windows 7 blows it...