After recent Apple market share gains, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said the “tide has really turned. Apple actually gained about one point but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction.”

Ballmer went on to say…”The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment — same piece of hardware — paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that’s a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be.”

Obviously PC sales have been hit by the hard economy, and of course Ballmer isn’t complementing people for paying $500 for the Apple logo, but then maybe people prefer Apple because of their design and software, maybe Ballmer hasn’t thought of that.