This sucks. Now we have to sit around and watch the stock tumble today, on this report

This, and follow up articles by others, will force Apple to make some announcements real soon. Maybe sneak something out before MacWorld.

Lets all get ready for an interesting next 3 weeks.

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The racoon iMac needs a makeover not a refresh. It looks too Dell-like - not Apple-worthy compared to previous models- IMHO.

Sorry but shouldn't these numbers be taken with a grain of salt considering this November only included two days of post-holiday sales (11/28 - 11/29) compared to last year's eight total (11/23 - 11/30)?

This seemingly bad news is remarkably similar to that in the game console market, where Sony's PS3, which has grown 60% year-over-year (that number sounds a bit better than it is because the PS3 didn't sell all that well in 2007, but growth is growth) saw a 19% plunge year-over-year likely due to the fewer shopping days. Meanwhile Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has been flat lining for a year now, saw 7.6% growth (nearly identical to the flat lining Windows PC market that jumped 7% year-over-year, as noted in the article). Nintendo's Wii saw 108% growth year-over-year, but while these are all consoles, that's sort of like comparing iPhone and iPod year-over-year growth - the Wii is a phenomenon.

Perhaps Mac desktop sales were also down 38% due to increased interest in laptops overall, which isn't really a negative when Mac laptop sales jumped 22%. Subtracting the former from the latter, that's a 16% decline in Mac desktop sales, which is again, nearly identical to what the PS3 saw (19% decline).

I know there's allot of people who like the glass displays but I'm sure Apple excluded plenty of people by not offering an option for those of us who can't use the reflective glass.

I'm holding out buying a new mac until I have an option.

So I'm a mini fan also, but I think people like towers. Also, a lot of retail chains in the US (BB) that carry Apple do not have any minis on display ever. When people see cheap PCs and don't care as much about PC v. Mac, they don't seem likely to pay the iMac premium. Don't get me wrong; it's not about the value of the iMac; it's about the absolute price. Additionally, the entire lineup in my opinion needs to be more aggressively refreshed. It's a rapidly changing industry, etc.

Well I am one of the ones who has been waiting since early November for the refresh before I plunk down my cold hard cash. No new iMac for me till Apple updates them.

Or it could just be the economy; most people don't know a computer hasn't been refreshed.

With the economy slowing down, people who need to watch what they spend will be going for low quality throw away machines more than they will a product like a mac.

From the earlier article, "People familiar with these plans have described the [iMac] refresh to consist of 'speed bumps' rather than major internal or external changes."

So no one is buying iMacs because of a few "speed bumps"?