I need a new mac - maybe they will drop their prices? While people will tend to buy macs to treat themselves a bit (and no-one can really blame apple for cashing in on this while the going is good) macs are really quite pricy at the moment. Mac minis especially.

I have been using Macs at work for magazine and card design and publishing for about 12 years. I don't buy Macs because they look nice (and, by and large, they do) but because I need them to work ... all the time.

In those 12 years I have NEVER had a virus (despite having no McAfee, Norton or any other proprietary virus barrier) nor have I had a machine breakdown (even the ones I didn't like!) and most of the macs we have bought are still in use. I've had system crashes (or kernel panics) caused by peripherals but I can count these on one hand.

Currently I use a Mac Pro at work. I think it looks like a giant cheese grater but I know that if I need to I can just pull a lever, open it up and slide in a new drive. Easy. I don't need an IT Department.

Three weeks ago I spent nearly £2,000 on a Mac for home. Because I waited for the introduction of a new model I paid the price of a less favourable dollar/pound but that had nothing to do with Apple. I could have bought a PC with similar specifications for a couple of hundred pounds less (yes, that's all). But I bought a Mac for two reasons ... one, I'm comfortable with the OS and ... two, I want the machine to last at least 5 years because two grand is a lot of money. I DO care about the looks ... to me, good industrial design says a lot about the care a company takes about its products.

Finally, I'm lucky enough to be very near to an Apple Store. There I can get free advice and free training from people who know about the goods they sell and a second-to-none service which, frankly, I have found astoundingly good. If it's a marketing strategy from the USA, fine ... it works and I'd like to see more of it in the UK.

The perception of Macs is that they are expensive but that argument really doesn't hold up well when you compare specifications and service.

that the poor DESKTOP sales figures are related to product updates. Many people (me among them) expected new processors and upgrades to desktops at the MacWorld event in January - an expo where we have been used to hardware introductions. It didn't happen ... it was mostly about software.

The consequence of this was that many people held back to await the hardware upgrades which didn't come until March.

Of course I am guessing, and there will undoubtedly be some purchases which have been mothballed because of the downturn, recession, credit crunch or whatever you call it. March's figures may be a better indicator.

as a 'business' user (i'm a musician / producer) i wouldn't say Macs are a luxury - I switched from PC's a year or so ago and wouldn't go back, price difference or no. The usability, reliability etc etc genuinely has saved me so much time that it's more than covered the extra price i paid.

one thing that concerns me though, is that i think Apple dropped the ball a bit by dumping the White Macbook range. For all its faults, that was the range that brought Mac laptops within range of the average user (it's what I bought) and by getting rid of almost all of them (and putting the price up on the remaining one) I think they may have lost a fair few sales.

Apple don't give NPD any data; this covers only US PC bricks & mortar retailers who also sell Macs. ie Best Buy Mac sales were down. Might match web and Apple retail sales; might not. Wait for the real first quarter numbers from Apple before jumping to conclusions.