Report: Apple Sales Are Rotten

After crunching the numbers, researchers at NPD Group found that sales for Mac units dropped 6 percent in January, compared to the same period a year ago, with an 11 percent decline in product revenue.

NPD vice president and industry analyst Stephen Baker believes Apple's core problem is not about Jobs, but rather the thorn in every company's side: the crumbling economy.

"To some extent, Apple has been struggling in the last few months -- there were some issues with overall pricing problems during the holidays and afterward," he said.

Those issues, Baker said, have nothing to do with Apple product quality, but the willingness of consumers to open their wallets.

"Right now buyers are not looking for price and value," he said. "Something may not be the best product out there, but if it has a low price point they will be willing to spend."

Apple desktop sales have been weaker than other companies over the last four months, Baker said, and have fallen more than 30 percent, a problem that once again ties into pricing.

And although Apple fans create a great deal of buzz surrounding purported Mac upgrades, that kind of talk is just, well, a buzz kill for Apple.

"Those kind of rumors can freeze the market," Baker said. "People could postpone decisions about buying existing products to wait for a new and improved one, and discontinued products are another impediment to sales."

Meanwhile, despite their popularity, or because of it, iPods are also experiencing sales declines, and saw a 14 percent decrease in January compared to the same period a year ago.

"With iPods and mp3 players in general, the issue is that the U.S. is a saturated market," Baker said. "How many more products can the market absorb?"