Despite slow economy, Mac market share booms

Rich people are the only ones buying computers in these difficult days. I'm sure Ferrari's and other overpriced vehicles are faring better than their more mundane, reasonably priced counterparts as well.

The article is incorrect. Apple's market share has indeed been above 8%. It actually reached 15% in the early nineties.
http://www.macworld.com/article/50112/2006/03/30moments.html

"the U.S. economy is in a bit of a slump..."

(Trying to get my brain around this as a description of the current situation.)

I'm curious what people think will happen with Apple if the economy falls off a cliff. Does it have a strong enough market share to survive a bad recession? Or would its products be seen by too many people as unnecessary luxuries?

Don't get me wrong: I've owned a Mac since my first Mac Plus in 1986, and I love them. But if I were Apple, I'd be a little worried right now.

@MadMike

Exactly!! Now, the problem is, most company's IT departments push PCs because they know they'll be out of jobs if everyone gets Macs! It's funny to see most IT departments rolling out new PC equipment and users complaining and having major issues with them, while envying those that are fortunate enough to buy Macs on their own... (yes, I experience that everyday around the office - love my MBP :p)

If only people realized that TCO includes headaches, stress, etc... maybe they'd be willing to stop buying cheap computers arguing that Macs are too expensive... Macs are not "too expensive", they just don't have "cheap stuff" (which is WAY different). Most sub-$1000 notebook PCs come with cheap CPUs (eg. Celeron) or low quality components (cheap memory or batteries)!

No wonder why Apple is taking over the notebook market...

Because a Mac's TCO is lower than Windows despite the "sticker shock" normally associated with the initial purchase price.

Cool ! What if Apple releases OS X for all NON-APPLE computers... There would barely be any Windows users left !!