Reuters reported yesterday, and the Wall Street Journal reported today, that Amazon.com has begun selling computers, including Macs. The company is working with Ingram Micro, one of two Apple distributors, handle fulfillment, effectively making Amazon a go between. The online mega-retailer has picked the slowest period ever for the PC industry to join in the fray, and that has analysts scratching their heads. From the Reuters report:
"It should be a nice business but the PC market is in a slump. The real question is are consumers ready to upgrade systems today or will it be slow buildout," said Jeetil Patel, an analyst with Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown. "The assumptions I have and that I think most of the Street has assume very little uptake of the PC category," Patel said.
"The dim outlook for the PC market will kind of hamper the reception a little bit but it should be a good business long-term," said Adam Hamilton, an analyst with Seattle-based brokerage McAdams Wright Ragen.
Be that as it may, you can sheen over to Amazonis computer section and see a nice advert for an iBook at the top of the page. Heading to the laptop subsection, we found the top portable listed to also be Appleis iBook. The same thing goes for the desktop subsection, where the G4 was the most prominent computer listed. Note that this may have been because we were browsing on a Mac, but the important issue was that Macs and PCs were being shown on the same page.
The prices shown match Appleis pricing.