This "Fire Sale" has been going on for a while now my friend... Think about the "No Interest, No Payment till 2012!" Retailers like Ashley Furniture and Home Depot, who by the way is one of the Top-Ten Corporations in The United States. You think Apple is struggling, you should see the numbers at Wal-Mart and almost every Big-Box retailer in the World right now..... Wicked inventory levels that even the extremely "smart" CFO's are having trouble concealing in the quarterlies.... This is going to be an unbeilevable holiday season of Major Companies declaring bankruptcy in the face of the Fed's Little to late rate cut.

Ouch.

Fortunately, Apple isn't struggling at all. In fact, it is doing extremely well, posting another record quarter of the best Mac sales ever, and the iPod still selling like hot cakes. Apple now has over 200 of its own stores, from none six years ago, and is opening a new one approximately every nine days, so they are hardly hurting. The iPhone is still flying off the shelves as well. As to those who purchased the iPhone at its original price, that was a decision that the purchaser made because that was the value that the purchaser perceived in the iPhone when it came out. Anyone who is an early adopter in technology items knows full well they are going to pay a premium price to be the first kid on the block with a new toy, and knows that the price will drop shortly thereafter. Anyone who bought a $600 iPhone, often after waiting in line and being excited to own one obviously thought it was worth $600, or else they wouldn't have waited in line and been excited to be among the first to own one. These people have nothing to complain about, otherwise they could have waited until the price drops, which it always does. The people who didn't think it was worth $600 didn't buy one and waited, and they're still selling very well as a result.

Stating gross generalizations without having any of the facts, as to who's hurting and who isn't leads to inaccurate predictions of future events, and does nothing to add to an accurate discussion.