More significantly, the data shows how discounting has lowered consumer expectations about Windows PCs and brand equity for companies like Dell or HP. Additionally, gains below $1,000 indicate there is demand for lower-priced Macs, which during 2009 Apple satisfied with the $999 white MacBook and $599 Mac mini.

But of course in the last year the average price dropped below $500, so:

But there’s also a warning for Apple, too. “They continue to gain share in those segments, but almost all the growth was in under $500 computers, where they don’t play,” Baker told me today. “So at some point they are clearly going to run out of headroom in $1,000-plus, and in the $500-$1,000 segment they are still pretty small. And, of course, if selling prices continue on this path, the ‘premium’ segment is going to be over $500 not over $1,000.”

So the good news is the growth of the premium branding for the Mac, which they have to hope they can leverage into brand loyalty as they drop their pricing from the $1000+ range to the $500-1000 range for the majority of products.

I think the flip-side of all of this is that the days where consumers will pay $2000 for any laptop that doesn’t feature top-end desktop capabilities are numbered at best, and largely over.

Source: Betanews