Apple also enjoys a strong foothold in the design community, and in turn design-conscious consumers, who tend to replace their equipment more regularly. Apple hardware is attractive to these uses due to its relative performance to Wintel products. Consumers are functionally fixated on the Mhz gap between Apple G4 and Intel processors, although it is clearly a faulty comparison. In tests, Apple is proven to have the faster processor. Clearly the past few months have not been good for computer hardware makers.
Consumer demand is very low given the apprehension about the strength of the economy.
However, we seem to be reaching a turning point, and the economy could start improving. Nevertheless, Apple shares could face continued downward pressure over the near term in computer demand does not improve along with the overall economy in the coming quarters. Apple has suffered some serious problems with execution, and it remains to be seen if this situation will improve. The company has taken the initiative to replace several executives in its sales departments. So far, the results have been promising, but it remains to be seen how effective this will be.