via Daily News
CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple Inc. touched up its line of laptop computers Tuesday with a minimal nod to the economic turmoil that might push consumers to be more frugal this holiday shopping season.
Apple avoided a major price cut to the Macintosh line, though it did lower its least expensive computer, the existing version of the entry-level MacBook, by $100 to $999.
For the updated MacBook and MacBook Pro machines, Apple gave them some of the high-end features that had been in the MacBook Air, including thinner laptop casings and a “multitouch” track pad, which, like the iPhone, understands gestures for spinning and zooming.
In an event at Apple’s headquarters, Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and CEO, also said Apple switched from Intel Corp. to Nvidia Corp. as the supplier of the laptops’ graphics chips. Jobs said the change speeds up processing-intensive activities — playing popular 3-D video games, for example — as much as six-fold
As at other events in the last few months, Jobs appeared thin but, in a tongue-in-cheek nod to persistent questions about his health, projected a slide with his healthy 110-over-70 blood pressure reading.
The redesigned laptops are lighter than existing machines, and Apple touted a construction “breakthrough” in the way the casings are cut and tooled from aluminum, without a stronger skeleton fused to the insides.
At the lowest end of the redesigned laptops, a MacBook will cost $1,299, while the most expensive MacBook Pro, which comes with two graphics chips from Nvidia for extra fast graphics processing, costs $2,499. An updated MacBook Air, the ultra-thin portable notebook that does not have a CD or DVD drive on board, is $1,799.
Jobs declined to take questions on the economy on Tuesday, telling reporters and analysts that “there are much smarter people than us that you can ask about the global financial meltdown.”
However, Apple’s decision to keep most laptop prices well over $1,000, despite competition from PC makers whose cheapest notebooks cost less than $500, would appear to reflect the company’s confidence it can maintain its premium status even in tough times.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, said Apple’s Macintosh sales growth has far outpaced the broader PC market over the last several quarters. Market tracker IDC said in its last quarterly report, in July, that Apple ranked third in the U.S. PC market, with 7.8 percent share.
Cook said Apple was benefiting as rival Microsoft Corp.‘s Windows Vista operating system has received a landslide of negative press.
“Vista hasn’t lived up to everything that Microsoft hoped it would,” he said.
Apple’s new machines can be ordered online Tuesday and are expected to reach Apple’s retail stores on Wednesday.
Apple shares were down $6.59, 6 percent, at $103.67 in afternoon trading.
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