Even Apple is feeling the economic crisis, as shown by the NPD report released at the beginning of the week. According to the latest figures, Mac sales dropped 16 percent in February, and will continue to decline in the next period.

The announcement doesn’t come as a surprise, considering the economic context, and the fact that Apple is pretty tough when it comes to prices. The same drop was also registered in iPod sales, the same report reveals.

Last month, NPD group revealed that although it has been affected much less than others, it is obvious that Apple needs to do “something” to boost hardware sales. Compared to the same period last year, sales had gone down 6 percent, but desktop sales were the ones to suffer the most.

Apple saw this year its first decline in the past six years, and this trend is likely to continue. Analysts say Apple could make its way out of this situation by deploying new hardware, and perhaps taking into consideration the fact that in tough economic times, price is always an issue.

Speaking of price, it is worth mentioning that the prices of Apple’s Mac laptops have dropped 7 percent in February, to approximately $1,512. NPD said.

On a more positive note, analysts expect that March will be less of a downfall for Apple. Piper Jaffray research analyst Gene Munster estimated that Mac shipments are in compliance with the general estimations for the period ending March, which place Apple at a little over 2 million units shipped.