Apple Reports Third Quarter Results
I care a lot about the Mac, and I&#x27;m not sure what to think about the fact that Mac unit sales are down again.<p>The Mac has been growing for a long time, and they seem to have reached a plateau. I assume that&#x27;s the reason why Macs have became absurdly expensive in the last few years -- when they can&#x27;t grow unit sales, they need to grow revenue per unit.<p>The result is that Apple doesn&#x27;t build the computer most of their potential customers want -- a $1000 Macbook. I understand that they don&#x27;t care about the $300 netbook market, but not offering a decent $1000 laptop is a bad idea. It means they are going to loose consumers and students – there are decent alternatives at that price point. Or, people like me, who just keep using their old Macbooks because the high price of the new machines isn&#x27;t worth the marginally improved performance.<p>Where does this lead us? I don&#x27;t see how the Mac should grow from here, and as a Mac software developer that worries me. I want to be in a growing market, not a stagnant one. I&#x27;m probably going to be okay for the next few years, but is the Mac still going to be a worthwhile platform for a small software company in 10-15 years? I don&#x27;t know.