Apple Inc. suffered a massive 18% stock market drop along with numerous other tech companies after two brokerage firms downgraded their rating on the stock. The fall reduced the company’s market value by $20 billion dollars. The shares hit a 52-week low of $100.59, down $22.98, and closed at $105.26.

Kathryn Huberty, analyst for Morgan Stanley, downgraded Apple from "Overweight" to "Equal-weight" citing that Macintosh growth was hampered by diminishing consumer spending due to the economic crisis. Morgan Stanley’s analysis indicates that the current economic factors will favor growth rather in the lower end of the market, an area where Apple doesn’t have a presence, and subsequently their sales will decrease, says Huberty.

RBC Capital Markets’ Mike Abramsky bumped Apple stock ratings down from "Outperform" to "Sector Perform” for many of the same reasons.

The Cupertino, CA computer company was not the only one to be hit hard on Monday. Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc rely mainly on internet advertising for their income, and they lost 12% and 11%, respectively. EBay Inc. lost 12%, proving not even auctioneers are safe if they're based online. Video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. fell 14%. Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., hardware companies all, were also among those who suffered heavy losses.

Despite its slowdown, predictions for Apple computers herald two-digit growth for next year. Nonetheless, Apple doesn’t rely on computers alone. The iPhone is the no. 2 selling Smartphone in the United States after the BlackBerry, and Apple’s iPod holds 71% of the music player market share.

In the long run, this is unlikely to ruin the game for Apple and other big players in the field. In times of economic recession, people tend to cut back on big spending such as cars and real estate, but they keep buying consumer electronics.

People don't view buying a computer or an iPod as a large purchase, and they are passionate about the consumer electronics they bring home," said Nathan Safran, JupiterResearch's digital home analyst.

According to Tim Herbert, senior director of marketing at the Consumer Electronic Association., "is not recession-proof, but it's recession-resilient." He went on to point out that flat-panel display sales were up 40% over this time last year. This is, according to Herbert, because consumer electronics have gone from being seen as luxury goods, or pure entertainment, to something of a necessity.

Ultimately, say other analysts, the fate of consumer electronics and other tech companies will depend upon the severity of the economic crisis facing the U.S. and that in turn will depend on the people’s attitude as much as anything. According to a poll run by Gallup for USA Today, 33% of Americans believe the country is in not just a recession but a depression while 73% said they expected economic woes to get worse before they get better.