Apple computer sales decline for the first time

Is Apple season finally coming to an end? Analysts are starting to get uncomfortable with the company's future prospects as, for the first time in modern history, sales of its computer products have gone down over the prior year.

Sales in the U.S. for November were down 1 percent vs. November 2007, while the rest of the computer industry actually showed a 2 percent year-over-year increase. NPD, which crunched the numbers, blamed the Mac desktop line, which experienced a 35 percent plummet in sales vs. the prior year. Mac laptop sales, on the other hand, were still trending up.

The data handily illustrate a number of trends in the computer industry. First, desktops are a rapidly decaying market, as consumers flock en masse to laptop PCs. But equally importantly, cost has become an over-arching concern in all areas of high-tech, and the more expensive the product, the more heavily monetary issues weigh on the buyer. Apple of course has been notoriously resistant to cutting its prices: Weak discounts of under $200 actually made headlines when Apple begrudgingly cut prices for Black Friday. And with no netbook for sale, Apple has effectively cut itself out of the single hottest segment of the market.

With Mac laptop sales still in growth mode, it's probably too early to declare that the Mac's overall market share is about to plateau, but the overall softness leads me to wonder whether that time can be far off. Considering the company's annualized growth rate was pushing 80 percent only eight months ago, change has come quickly and furiously to Apple. How will it respond? January's MacWorld may offer an answer, but even that is looking to be an event as tepid as anything the rest of the industry has on tap.