When Apple starts to suffer, we know times are bad … November sales of Mac computers declined one percent in retail stores compared to the same month last year, due mainly to a 35 percent decline in desktop computers. Analysts are preparing for a tough 2009 for the company. Apple also has a more immediate problem on its hands. Users are reporting problems after installing the latest update to its operating system. The Blue Screen of Death returns!
But Microsoft has it worse … Despite notifying users about a security flaw in Internet Explorer six days ago, the company still doesn’t have a reliable patch to fix the problem—which opens the browser up to spyware after it visits an infected page. PC World has the details. Microsoft’s advice to the more than 60 percent of Web users who surf with Explorer? Switch browsers. We say: download Firefox.
The steady drumbeat of depressing consumer news grows louder … Retail prices were 1.7 percent lower in November than they were in October, a record decrease. The New York Times article summarizing this madness has some choice quotes from experts: “I’ve never seen the economy slam on the brakes as much as it has in the last three months” …. and “This is mind-bogglingly awful.” The entire housing economy, from construction to home sales, is completely imploding. New home construction is at its lowest level in 50 years.
OPEC is feeling the pinch, too … The oil cartel announced Tuesday it would cut production by two million barrels a day, representing 2.5 percent of global production, to stop the decline in prices. Russia may also cut production by 600,000 barrels a day. This chart depicting the last year in prices says it all. While the drop in prices might have detrimental long-range effects, I wasn’t complaining on Sunday when it cost me $16 to fill up my gas tank.
Superstar Toyota suffers just like Apple … And the News Roundup circle is complete. Can Toyota be called the Apple of car manufacturers? The Prius is certainly the hottest car, but Toyota is postponing opening its first Prius plant in the United States because of the economic downturn. The factory in Mississippi was originally going to build the Tundra pickup truck, then the Highlander crossover vehicle. It will still build the Prius, but it’s going to sit empty until at least 2011—that’s the earliest Toyota can get the almost-finished plant on-line.