Apple was expected to unveil new notebook computers, perhaps even one priced for those with tight budgets, at a “town hall” gathering at its northern California headquarters yesterday.
In typical enigmatic style, Apple hinted at the theme of the invitation-only event but provided no details other than that it would be held on Tuesday morning at the firm’s headquarters in the city of Cupertino.
Invites sent out by e-mail late last week bore the lone message “The spotlight turns to notebooks.”
That was enough to ignite a firestorm of rumor on the Internet as Apple’s cultish followers began feverishly trying to deduce what the California company might be planning to unveil for the year-end holiday shopping season.
By Monday, speculation online included talk that Apple will introduce a Macintosh laptop computer priced perhaps as low as US$800 in an unprecedented break from selling premium products at premium prices.
Apple has never marketed a Macintosh laptop computer priced less than US$1,000.
“I think Apple has to go less than US$1,000,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley said of pricing for Macintosh laptops.
“With the economy the way it is, holding on to a premium price point would mean taking a bath in the Christmas shopping season. It is tough to move premium products. That category is at huge disadvantage,” he said.
Apple’s Macintosh computers remain a distant second place to world-dominating PCs based on Windows operating systems from Microsoft but have been gaining market share.
Analysts believe the popularity of Apple’s trendy iPod MP3 players and iPhones revived the company’s cachet and attracted buyers to its computers.
A “refreshed” line of Macintosh laptop or notebook computers is likely to feature technical upgrades made possible by powerful NVidia or Intel processors that serve as computer engines.
Not everyone is convinced Apple is ready to begin battling on price in a fat but heavily competitive segment of the laptop market.
“There is a possibility they might go there, but in general they have consistently played at the very high end of the market,” Gartner analyst Van Baker said.
“While I would love to see Apple compete in the US$799 to US$999 price range, based on past history I am skeptical they are going to do that,” he said.
Baker says it is more likely Apple is giving its MacBook Pro line of laptops a thinner, more industrial design that proved successful with its MacBook Air model.
Apple is expected to shift from plastic laptop casings to more stylish and eco-friendly aluminum.
At least one Internet Web site known for keeping tabs on Apple says the firm might surprise the world with a TV customized to link to the Internet and download digital movies from iTunes.
An Apple TV set-top box for routing movies or high-definition TV shows or movies from home computers to TVs has been a slow seller.
“Apple has had this all-in-one idea for a while,” Enderle said. “Apple TV built into a television could be interesting. I think it is at least possible.”
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