The economy is impacting consumer choices, but Macs, due to their high upfront, won't sell in a more conservative market. On 29 September, Morgan Stanley noted: "PC unit growth is decelerating and the remaining source of growth is increasingly the sub-$1,000 market where Apple does not play." Even if Apple were to drop pricing, the Apple Tax still prices Macs well outside of the sub-$1000 range.
You can get a PC laptop with a bigger hard drive, more RAM, a media-card reader, more USB ports, and a bigger screen, for much less than a Mac....You can upgrade just about any Windows desktop PC, but the only significantly upgradeable Mac is the Mac Pro listed at $2799.00.
Repurchasing software to make your Mac do all the things your PC does will cost you hundreds of dollars. Buying a Mac means scrapping your software and buying new applications (for up to $1,100) that run on Mac, just to do what you can still easily do on a new PC with the applications you already have. We've listed a set of common applications below.
HDMI, Blu-Ray, eSATA, MediaCard Readers, built-in 3G, Fingerprint readers, TV Tuners, all have been shipping as built-in features on PCs for years, but none are available on a Mac. Not only does this mean you get to use the latest and greatest now, but since it's so easy to upgrade PCs, it also means that your computer is more future-ready...you can get today's technology now, and tomorrow's technology the minute its available.