Apple putting the brakes on hardware?


Wired pontificates Apple may be putting the slow-down on releasing new hardware. Citing stats of declining sales and long-in-the-tooth product life, Wired makes the case that Apple may be holding out on us darkening economic skies.

"Apple's Mac desktop line is conspicuously overdue for a refresh. Typically, these computers receive at least an incremental upgrade (i.e., minor improvements to processor, memory, storage) every seven months. However, both the Mac Mini and Mac Pro haven't received an update in well over a year, and the current iMac is 10 months old.

"Apple's secretive business strategies and company culture are unconventional, to say the least, but it appears the state of the PC industry -- combined with the economic downturn -- is forcing the corporation to conform. "

This certainly makes sense on the surface, particularly with the consumer iMac and Mini products. There is little sense is rolling out new gear when few are in the market to buy. However, an opposite logic may make sense. That is, rather than products are getting old because customers aren't been buying, sales are atypically (for this economy) slow because the products are old. Compare those slow desktop sales to Apple's laptops that are seeing brisk sales, which saw recent updates.

The MacPro in particular may be a kink in the theory. It's widely believed that Apple, like most other makers, have been waiting for new chips from Intel. That would seem to be a bigger speed bump than sales numbers.