[CharlesS]

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...il_stores.html

If that doesn't show that something's wrong with the aluminum MacBook, I don't know what does.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

If that doesn't show that something's wrong with the aluminum MacBook, I don't know what does.

I don't follow your conclusion. It has always been in Apple's best interest to generate upsell. If people chose a MBP over a MB Apple is making the better sale.

If people were actually not buying Apple notebooks at all because the MBP is out of reach and "there's something wrong with the UB MB" that would be a problem. But what we are actually observing is the opposite. Apple's portables are selling well. It's their desktop lines that are going down the crapper.

[CharlesS]

The article says most of the stores are reporting that sales are down, and somehow I doubt that the college students who generally buy the MacBook are all moving to the MBP in droves (in my experience, a lot of them tend to consider even the regular MacBook's price a stretch).

What this indicates to me is that the MacBook isn't selling as well as it should be, and a bunch of potential MacBook buyers ended up getting a Vaio instead, to the point that the MacBook's actually selling fewer units than the MBP (which I would expect to be selling in similar numbers to the previous revision, since unlike the MB, the MBP isn't a bad deal compared to the old one).

[Simon]

Sales are down no doubt. But to be able to distinguish MB customer appeal from the general state of the economy you need to look at relative numbers. Portable Macs aren't selling worse than Win notebooks. What's really changing is that Apple is selling fewer and fewer desktops. In fact Apple's desktop sales have become so poor that their notebook sales as of lately haven't been able to make up for it anymore.

If we'd see numbers saying that MB sales are dropping faster than those of Win notebooks I'd agree with your statement. But the way it is now, all we know is that sales are slowing down. And with the current state of the economy that could be entirely independent of the MB price/config for all we know.

[Maflynn]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

If that doesn't show that something's wrong with the aluminum MacBook, I don't know what does.

Your conclusion is flawed, the article states that the poll was for one month, you cannot assume that something is wrong with the MacBook based on one month's worth of data.

Additionally, just because the MBP is outselling the MB in the month of February doesn't mean that something is wrong with the MB either. There's really no way to make that connection, perhaps if they ran this same poll in August, or September, you'd see the numbers reversed because college students would be purchasing computers. What then, we can make the claim that something is wrong with the MacBook Pro because the MB was outselling the MBP in september?

[tooki]

Frankly, there's no way those numbers are true, at least for Apple Stores, which likely are not the subject of that survey. If the survey is even true. (The real sales numbers are confidential and no Apple store would have given out that data.)

Back in the days of white MacBooks, I would sell probably 3-5 MacBooks to every MacBook Pro. There is simply no way that the numbers have shifted so drastically in such a short time. (Most MacBook buyers didn't even know what FireWire was, never mind used it.)

The thing that really raised a red flag to me is the claim of a store selling more Mac Pros than anything else -- that's impossible. The Mac Pro is a niche machine very few people buy at retail. I probably sold 1 Mac Pro for every 200 other Macs I sold.

[CharlesS]

It seems weird to me too, but the article claims it's talking about Apple Stores.

Amazon's list of best-selling computers looks a little more reflective of what I'd expect though - the white MacBook being at the top, with the unibody below that, and the MBP lower than that. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the unibody MacBook isn't the top seller it's supposed to be.

I think the problem with the unibody MacBook isn't just FireWire - it's that it just isn't a good deal relative to what you can get elsewhere on the market right now. It's overpriced, underpowered, and during a bad economy too.

[polendo]

I do not have any data to support this particular case, but business/marketing/economics wise is normal for expensive products to outsell (or sell at a higher rate) less expensive models. The reason is disposable income. That is the extra money people have to buy things which aren´t considered a necesity. Having said that, as the way things are right now in the economy there is much less disposable income in general.. and only people with enough disposable income can still buy upscale products. For them this economic crisis aren´t so much of a problem to be able to buy a computer.

[goMac]

Honestly, it's the wrong time of year for Macbook sales. Most of those will happen during the summer and fall in the education market. It's more of a pro time of season.

That said, I know of one organization that recently passed on buying about 5000 of the aluminum Macbooks in favor of the old plastic models (no idea if they ended up with the NVidia or GMA ones.) The deciding factor? Lack of Firewire.

[Dakar V]

So, am I supposed to assume FireWire has something to do with this, or have I been reading these forums too long?

[B Gallagher]

I'd love to see sales figues comparing the UB MBs to the new white MBs.

[Dakar V]

I think the unibody would seduce more people than FireWire and price point. It'd be a shocking revelation, though.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the unibody MacBook isn't the top seller it's supposed to be.

I agree with the first part. I wouldn't doubt it's not the top seller, but OTOH I wouldn't expect that either. With the current state of the economy I would expect the cheapest MB to sell best. And that's the white MB. It's a price thing. While on a board like this one some people might try to drag FW into it, it's not really part of the equation. The average buyer simply doesn't care. The average Joe who wants to buy a MB will simply go for the white MB because it's the one model that's affordable.

I think the problem with the unibody MacBook isn't just FireWire - it's that it just isn't a good deal relative to what you can get elsewhere on the market right now. It's overpriced, underpowered, and during a bad economy too.

I agree with that. I think the white MB should be dropped and the current low-end UB MB should take over the white's $999 price point. Accordingly the high-end UB MB should be lowered to $1299. I think two MBs are enough.

OTOH I still think Apple should consider a smaller and cheaper MB lite. Quite obviously there is an interest in netbooks. And with this state of the economy, having a $699 Mac notebook would most likely be a good thing. I remember before the Mac mini came out nobody thought Apple would ever ever release a $500 Mac. Until they did. And at least initially it was a huge success. Not just for Mac market share, but also in terms of Apple's revenue. I feel fairly confident that we've reached a similar situation ow in the notebook market. Apple can and should explore new areas. Especially in this economic crisis.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by Dakar V 

So, am I supposed to assume FireWire has something to do with this, or have I been reading these forums too long?

You're onto something there.

While I can certainly believe that FW plays a crucial role for geeks like us on this board, I am absolutely confident that it isn't a major concern with the average buyers. Most average buyers will probably not even know what FW really is.

I wouldn't doubt Apple suffered some MB downsell among buyers on this board. But compared to the average Apple customer I'm absolutely certain it's negligible. And I think that's also in line with what we've heard from actual sales people on this board.

[Spheric Harlot]

The numbers in that article are weird enough, over a short-enough period, to be conclusively meaningless.

Also:

independent checks by AppleInsider found that the 2.4GHz MacBook Pro is handily outselling the 2.4GHz MacBook this quarter as a close second to the top-selling 2.0GHz aluminum MacBook.

This makes complete sense. The 2.0 is the top seller, and the 2.4 GHz languishes slightly in the shadow of a machine that bests it in every way except processor speed and size (or including size, depending on your priority) for a €300 markup...

[Big Mac]

Anyone think that netbooks are drinking the MB's milkshake?

[tooki]

No, people want real computers if it's their only one.

But seriously, folks... Yes, as I said before, most users haven't heard of FireWire, never mind need it, so they don't miss it. Why's the cheap white one popular? Cuz it's cheap!

It would NOT surprise me that the high-end MacBook sells less than the low-end MBP: most users do NO benefit from the upgrades between the entry MacBook to the higher one. And then the people who want a bigger laptop get the lowest MBP.

[Maflynn]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Anyone think that netbooks are drinking the MB's milkshake?

No, the biggest knock against the netbooks that I've been hearing/reading is their keyboard. Anyone who needs to use a laptop for other then light surfing, light typing is not going to go with a netbook.

Besides netbooks run windows, where as MBs run OSX by far a superior OS.
Disclaimer: Yes, some people have loaded OSX on a netbook, its possible, but the majority of people who buy a windows based machine will not do that. Only geeks and hobbiests

All in all, netbooks fill a niche, and are quite popular but I don't think they're really impacting MacBook sales to a great extent. The tiny keyboard, small display, small hard drive all mean it cannot really handle the tasks a MB can.

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

The numbers in that article are weird enough, over a short-enough period, to be conclusively meaningless.

Yup.

-Allen Wicks

[mduell]

Apple Mac Sales Drop While PC Sales Charge Ahead in January:
Throughout 2008, Apple consistently posted higher growth than Windows PCs. Thanks to this trend, Apple skyrocketed to third place in total quarterly sales.

Now another significant landmark has been passed by Apple, further signaling that it is not immune to the economic downturn. In January, for the first time in almost a year, total Windows PC sales growth surpassed that of Apple. Apple sales and revenue dropped 6 percent and 11 percent respectively during the month of January compared to December.

Windows PCs, on the other hand, saw sales increase by 13 percent [with flat revenue].

[Big Mac]

Firewire strikes back! Viva la resistance!

[Eug]

According to that survey, one store's #1 seller is the Mac Pro. WTF?

Is that store located inside building full of animators or something?

Anyways, at Apple Store Canada, the #1 seller is the MacBook, and the #2 seller is the iMac. At Amazon.com, the #1 Mac is the MacBook unibody, followed by two different versions of the white, followed by the Mac mini. Oh and at Amazon, all the Macs are been blown away by the netbooks.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Firewire strikes back! Viva la resistance!

netbooks have Firewire?

[Doofy]

Even Dell lappies come in different colours. People want colours. Like "girl pink" lappies to match all the other "girl pink" stuff in their house and their "girl pink" car, for example.

Apple should get some designers in and maybe do something about that.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

netbooks have Firewire?

No, but every other Mac does, and every Mac should.

[Spheric Harlot]

Still has no real relevance to this thread - as per my post above.

[Big Mac]

It was a semi-joke. You don't have to take everything so seriously, SH.

[Simon]

What is this? Netbooks have FW and Apple needs designers. Are we being funny today?

[polendo]

Its Friday.. that must be it.