Only Apple knows exactly how many MacBook Airs it expected to sell, and thus, only Apple knows whether current figures are disappointing. Still, new findings suggest that people are doing more looking than buying, and that by year's end, transactions involving the Air will account for only 16 percent of Mac sales.
So place your bets, people - will Apple and its investors find this acceptable? The 16 percent stat comes from Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, so although he talked to just 20 resellers, it'll be somewhat hard to refute. Also, Munster added that about 60 percent of those resellers are seeing less initial demand for the Air than they did for
the 13-inch MacBooks two years ago.
On the other hand, everyone (see the 176 comments on Katie Marsal's article) can recognize that the Air is expensive, and Apple couldn't have expected people to choose small computers over their mortgage payments. Furthermore, the iPhone price cut probably made some folks cautious, and sales of the Air could still take off.
The stock market currently appears to agree with this second line of thinking; Apple is down 0.66 percent at the moment, but the Dow is down 0.88 percent and the Nasdaq has dropped a full 1.04 percent. All without any statements from Apple, by the way, so no damage control has taken place.
In related news, Walt Mossberg has been eyeing Lenovo's ThinkPad X300, which appears to have some advantages over (and shortcomings against) the Air.
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16%? I would consider that a success.
Let's see:
- Apple has three lines of desktop: mini, iMac, and Mac Pro
- Apple has three 'lines' of portables: MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air
In total, that is six product lines. The MacBook air is a niche product, so I expect it to sell for less than its share. That definitely is the case in units, but in dollars and euros, I would guess getting 1 in 6 would not be too bad, either.
Moreover, that 16% in dollars of sales may be more in margins.