NPD Group’s Weekly Tracking Service reported today that Apple’s MacBook sales for the period of November 18th through December 20th of 2012 were lower than the same period in 2011.
Despite slower sales, the average selling price of MacBooks was up nearly $100 from a year prior to $1,419.
The decline in domestic MacBook sales could be explained at least in part by the fact that the only new portable Mac released by Apple ahead of the holiday shopping season was the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. The rest of Apple’s MacBook lineup received updates over the summer, while the company’s fall refresh focused on desktops, with a redesigned iMac and updated Mac mini.
Apple had issued minor updates to the entire MacBook Pro lineup in late 2011, with faster CPUs & GPUs, and larger hard drives.
While Apple saw a drop in sales of its MacBook line, it did not experience as big a drop as Windows PCs during the same period. Sales of Microsoft Windows-based notebooks were down 11% year-over-year, even with the launch of Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system.
The average selling price of Windows notebooks increased $2 to $420.
The biggest hit taken in the Windows notebook market was in the low-end market. Sales of sub-$500 PCs were down 16%.
