At one time, Apple had to endure the accusation that they were overcharging for their products. You had to pay the alleged “Apple Tax” if you went Mac, whereas the PC was clearly a whole lot cheaper.

Well, these days that’s not quite true. When you compare a Mac with name-brand PCs with similar hardware and software configurations, matched as closely as possible, the Mac is highly competitive. What I mean is that sometimes the PC will be a little cheaper, and sometimes the Mac comes out ahead.

Just so there’s no further confusion, I’m not about to argue the point of whether all features in a Mac are actually needed or not. That’s not the point. What you get is what you get, and customization choices are kept very limited, although there are more possibilities at the high end, for the Mac Pro.

What’s more, I’m definitely not talking about the so-called “white box” PCs that you buy at discount stores or assemble yourself. Sure you can save money, but you might be out of luck when you need tech support, unless you prefer to do every little thing yourself.

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It appears that no company is immune from economic woes. Toyota, now the world’s largest automaker, was once thought to be bulletproof, yet the company is about about to suffer from the first financial loss in its history. Apple appears to be cutting back on production for this quarter, although it seems certain they’ll still report decent profits.

That takes us to Microsoft.

Stung by tepid sales of Windows Vista, with more and more companies sticking with XP and refusing to upgrade, there are published reports that the world’s largest software company may also be looking to shed bodies from among a roster of over 90,000 employees.

Although nobody wants to see people lose their jobs, some folks who resent anything with the Microsoft label on it might just feel it serves them right. Besides, you can always hope that whatever personnel are cut from the ranks will have sizable golden parachutes, so they can sit back, play golf or do some traveling with their riches.

Or maybe I’m just being too charitable.

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So here’s the deal: Whenever Steve Jobs doesn’t emerge from his office or subterranean hiding place for a few weeks, the rumors about his health begin anew. Certainly his expected lack of visibility at the forthcoming Macworld Expo, where marketing VP Philip Schiller is slated to deliver the keynote, fuels the speculative files still further. Only the announcement that Apple would pull out of the Expo altogether diffused the issue, since it came at the same time and inspired its own level of serious online chatter.

When it comes to the health of a CEO, a company’s board does have the responsibility to inform stockholders when that person is unable to perform their assigned duties. Even a reduced work schedule is sufficient to require some sort of public confirmation.

Apple’s habitual secrecy about Jobs is all the more troubling in that environment. Even if not exactly true, surely they could put a spin on the situation that would satisfy most people and shut down the rumor mills before things get out of hand.

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You’ve heard it time and time again. Apple won’t enter the low-cost PC market because they don’t want to produce “junk.” Steve Jobs said that himself as recently as the last phone conference with financial analysts in October, when asked whether Apple planned to release a netbook.

Since then things have changed in the marketplace, and these new facts can’t be lost on Apple.

One of the few success stories in the consumer electronics world just happens to be the netbook, which is showing a roughly 160% sales improvement. Where the cheap notebook was once consigned to emerging countries, the current shaky economic climate has forced both consumers and businesses to embrace cheap gear.

This means, for example, that discounters, such as Wal-Mart, are doing very well, whereas the higher-priced retailers are suffering.

There are reports that Apple, which has traditionally played in the mid- to high-priced PC marketplace, has been forced to cut back on production because of reduced demand. Of course, until Apple actually reveals its financials for the current quarter — and that’s about a month away — the truth won’t be known.

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