With Mac sales more or less plateauing during the last quarter, and Apple's market share growth down to nearly nothing, Apple has certainly gotten a few hints on how to increase market share in our current economic climate. The common refrain is that Apple should lower its prices, and a recent rumor suggested that Apple planned to do just that. But lowering prices won't necessarily be the magic bullet that some suspect.

Microsoft's "Laptop Hunters" series of ads has driven the price argument home. Money is tight, and Apple doesn't have much in the way of "budget" computers. It's $600 for the entry-level Mac mini, and that's without a display, keyboard, or mouse. If you want a laptop from Apple, ante up $1,000.

And let's face it: anyone who is a long-time Mac user knows that Apple charges out the wazoo for RAM and hard drive space. Apple could safely lower prices on these common upgrades, or at the very least include more for the price points it does offer. With margins regularly exceeding 30 percent, Apple definitely has some wiggle room.

But there is a downside to lowering prices, and it's one that the entire PC industry—the notable exception being Apple—has been experiencing: once you lower prices, it's nigh impossible to bring them back up. The average selling price for PCs has continued to spiral downward over the last several years. Most PC makers have shaven margins down to gossamer while hoping to make it up on volume, making profits harder to come by.

Apple certainly could put together a $500 laptop; it would sell like hotcakes, and Apple's market share would likely experience a surge.

Apple has largely avoided this game, and so it has regularly posted healthy quarterly profits for the last couple of years. Even during the first quarter, Apple reported its best post-holiday revenues ever. While other PC makers struggle, Apple is weathering the recession quite well.

So, Apple could lower prices on its current products. But if prices were pushed low enough, Apple could feel pressure to cut corners to maintain healthy margins. That would be dangerous ground to tread, since Apple has long maintained a reputation among many as a brand that doesn't cut corners, in either performance or aesthetics. That's part of the whole cachet that differentiates the Mac from "average" PCs, and part of the reason Apple can command generally higher prices for its computers. It also drives the high levels of customer satisfaction and brand loyalty that Apple has that other PC makers don't have.

Apple has to decide how much of its margins it is willing to concede, more or less permanently, to gain some unknown amount of additional market share. Historically, the company has been unwilling to concede any profit margin. That has generally meant the Mac is stuck with a small market share, but Apple as a company has made a successful business out of having under 10 percent of the PC market.

Apple certainly could put together a $500 laptop; it would sell like hotcakes, and Apple's market share would likely experience a surge. Will it be as good as the current, entry-level white MacBook that sells for $999? The answer is most assuredly not. And when some significant portion of those customers that bought the "cheap" Mac complain, what will happen to Apple's market share then?

Ultimately, Apple may decide to lower prices, perhaps as much as 10–20 percent across the board. That should also result in some significant increase to market share without Apple having to seriously compromise quality. But Apple better be prepared to keep prices at those levels, and be satisfied with the margins at those prices—even after the economy digs itself out of the ditch. Apple can always be subtle about how it raises prices, but it won't go completely unnoticed.