Apple Thoughts: Master Chief Has Nothing to do With This Halo

"The iPhone has joined the iPod in their ‘halo effect' promoting Apple's Mac. Mac global sales in September rose 16.4 percent, far ahead of a 2.3 percent year-over-year sales increase for PCs, one analyst told investors Tuesday."

This has been talked about before, how one item that is perceived as high quality can generate sales in associated items from the same company, and according to Needham and Co. analyst Charlie Wolf “We believe that the halo effect emanating from the iPhone should be even stronger than that surrounding the iPod.” Wolf also stated Apple made the right move in not lowering prices, because they sell a "differentiated product in a sea of commodities" and it would have hurt rather than helped the bottom line. The sales growth figures of 9.8% in the US, 38.7% in Europe and 27.1% in Asia seem to lend support to this. You can see how this is happening in the PC market. Gartner's latest forecast, says that while PC sales are going to be up about 2.8%, the market value of the sales is down 10.7% from last year.