Comments on: Reading the Apple tea leaves: Cheaper MacBooks coming?

Apple may bring lower laptop prices this October.

[solitare_pax]

It makes sense not to roll something out when the economy is on the skids.

Besides, maybe they're watching Dell and ASUS for a change to see how their mini notebooks fare before taking a stab at that.

Hint to Apple: Make them AFFORDABLE.

[ferretboy88]

If the economy is so bad then why was it so hard for me to find a place to eat last night. Every single mall and parking lot was filled. I was screaming "I thought the country was in the dumps" "Stay home".

[mmntech]

Hopefully we'll see the MacBook back to a $999 price point, or less. I had wanted a vanilla Macbook but the fact that they cut out the discrete graphics the iBook had and raised the price didn't sit well with me.

[Mac User Too]

Macs are affordable, compared to fully-featured laptops from other manufacturers. Apple just doesn't offer stripped-down models. Apple doesn't want to be known for selling bare-bones, feature-less crap. The additional market share isn't worth it. The tech press would crucify them anyway. Their comparative affordability is borne out by their steadily-increasing market share. Besides, I believe their customers are affected less by economic malaise than the general laptop-buying public.

[athomas0923]

Hmm... 1099 for 1gb of memory and 120 gb hard drive or like 799 for an hp with 3 or 4 gb of memory and at least a 250 gb hard drive. Processor/graphics are the same if not faster usually and you get a more versatile albeit less "flashy" pc. With a mac you pay for the OS not the hardware.

[ivandrago]

Yeah that's way off. I stopped in a Apple store recently to take advantage of the open wifi in the store. While I was there, I decided to look at the laptops in the store. While I knew that the Macs would cost more, I was shocked at how much more. My HP Pavillion dv9700 only cost $2100. I would have had to spend $3400 to get a comparable machine from Apple. Even then the hardware features were simply not as numerous. It felt more like Apple was just trying to milk the consumers by not even trying to be competitive. It's will be nice if Apple does lower there price, and adds a few more ports.

[dedavyjones]

So you are saying that $1,000 for a laptop is affordable? I got my laptop for $550, a mac with the same features would cost around $1000+. And in this economy people are looking to get more for their money - would you rather pay $1000 for a product or $550 for a product that can do the same things and functions just as well, especially if you were tight on money? With the way the economy is headed, apple definitely needs to lower its prices..way down. I don't know about you but i'm not willing to pay $1000 for a laptop when i can get one that works just as well for $550.

[btbridges]

WE NEED HDMI and a MEMORY CARD READER! If your going to make a top of the line notebook, then have top of the line features!

[ivandrago]

True dat! There's nothing better than stepping up to any HDTV and turning it into a monitor. Perhaps a memory card would effect the pretty.

[random truth]

They do have hdmi, The mini dvi port supports hdmi outputs. (thier is just not as much adapters because component and svideo are cheaper.

[ryank82]

They make a great operating system. It would be nice if they got a little more competitive on the pricing side. People can say what they want but the fact is you can get similar speced Windows equivalents at a lower price. Your paying for the Mac OSX advantage. Some people think its worth it and others do not.

[xZero2007x]

I think whether or not the price of Apple's Mac lineup is reasonable or not depends on when you buy it in its market lifespan. When the first generation of the Macbook Pros with the Nvidia Geforce 8600 (M or GT? I can't remember) were released, I thought they were very reasonable for the price. At the time, 2.2-2.4GHz for a Core2Duo processor in a laptop, and being one of the first (or the actual first mainstream laptop) with a card of that caliber that's current definitely made it worth the price.
..Well, a hundred or two hundred dollars less would have been better, but like I said, being the first to offer that, it was well worth it to deviate from the crowd, especially considering that the same price could be spent on competitors, only to come up short in performance and features (the LED screen was only out from Apple too!).

But if you were to have bought the minor update they did earlier this year, or even now, I don't think it's worth it since most of the market has caught up and can offer very similar, if not slightly better specs at almost 60% or half the price. The only thing you miss out on is the LED-lit keyboard, ambient brightness controls (for the most part), and Leopard.

That's kind of why I'm holding out for an update to justify the price. But if they manage to update the lineups and also give significant hardware upgrades, they'll have me sold almost immediately.

The same applies to the standard Macbooks... though I felt skimping out on the super drive in the basic configuration and RAM (well, 2GB is sufficient enough for Leopard, but they should have up'ed it a bit when they did the minor update) and discrete graphics almost kills the deal.

For a 13-inch laptop, it's actually OK aside from those minor gripes, but for goodness sakes, if you're going to include iMovie or expect people to unleash their photos and creative sides, you might as well give them a decent discrete card to go with it!

Mac User Too has a point on their customer audience too.

[Rotaryfan]

calling Mac OS a 'better' OS is an opinion, I personally love the freedom you have with vista, to mess around with settings and other things. OSX doesn't have better security features, it just isn't as great of a target. if you could create a supervirus that could penetrate 100% of the time, would you design it for windows or mac?

it is correct that vista is bloated, but it is possible to get rid of a lot of unnecessary features.

its true though that the Apple audience isn't generally financially insecure.

[dude7895]

Isn't saying cheap macbooks an oxymoron?

[Copernicus6]

I am eager to replace the macbook pro I carry around with a macbook air but the price is out of wack with its utilitity. The Air is a second computer -- a two-seater convertible to keep in the garage next to your family sedan. I will pull the trigger when the value proposition is higher. And I bet others will as well. (Also -- Apple should feel free to make it 12". This computer will do its best work while its still hanging on your shoulder!)

[hikarujax]

Maybe it's time for apple to have something more affordable the style of ASUS a Mac Book to go, 9 or 10 inch screen 1.5 GHz intel processor (could be atom) a 32GB SDD or 80 to 100 HDD 1GB RAM Mac X OS LEOPARD multi Card Reader Two USB ports Isight Cam, 6 Cell Battery from $699.99 being apple it's a bargain to beat!!!

[glen engelmann]

Why does everybody think that apple will make less money if they lower prices? first of all, they will sell more units. secondly, doesn't it make sense that apple can also manufacture the computers at a lower cost now?
i also can't believe that with apple's amazing success, growth, and profits that people still focus so much on price with apple products.
everybody has been saying for months that "in this economy" people are going to pull back on spending on apple products. but the facts show that with record sales in macs and iphones and continued growth in ipods that apple is doing just fine.
by the way, i am wondering how shaw wu failed to notice that the iphone 3g is selling by the millions and the new ipods are also sure to sell by the 10's of millions and apps are selling by the 100's of millions and songs are selling by the billions. sounds like a revenue bump to me.

[dedavyjones]

Some people are willing to pay the high price for apple products, even if it means getting into debt and more debt.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Who knows...but we do know Apple`s stock price keeps dropping , and Mr Whipple`s weight keeps dropping.
Whipple looks like a walking skeleton , and that`s not good for Apple. Maybe "Jeepers Creepers boy" could take over ?

[grpaul349]

Well considering Apple has over 18 billion cash on hand and it making hundreds of millions a year I'd say they're not doing all that bad. In fact, dare I say a majority of US companies would love to be in the financial position that Apple is in right now.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Maybe Phil "deer-in-the-headlights" Schiller would take over ?

[sage324]

As much as I would love to buy apple notebooks at cheaper prices I really don't think they should lower them. Apple is a status symbol. People view Apple products as more valuable so they need a price to go along with it. If the price of the notebooks drop, so will the idea of the macbooks or macbook pros being something unique. They will be in the same class as every other notebook. They stand out because of price.

[Rotaryfan]

as idiotic as that sounds, it is right on a subliminal level. apple hardware isn't the best out there, in fact, battery life isn't head and shoulders above the competition any more, which was a selling point at one time. w/o dedicated graphics in a cheaper solution MB instead of MBP, apple is missing out on budget gamers, which could add a new sector. I would copy sony and merge the 15" and 17" for a 16.4 16:9 screen so they can reclaim relative superiority in the media field, and they should make the standard MB a little bigger. 14" with a nearly frameless screen would make for a really awsome laptop without increasing size too much. it would be enough for me to buy it and run dual boot.

[Galenn20K]

That comment is just completely Ridiculous, I hope you know that.

Where DO these SNObs come from anyways.

[dedavyjones]

Actually, it's the quality that gives a product status, not the price. It's just that no one else builds macs, just pcs, that apple has a monopoly over macs (not all computers, just macs) so they can price them however they want because some people are willing to go into debt to get "the best" of everything which is kinda sad. Mac stands out because of its alleged quality, i've never used one before (and can't afford one) so I don't know if it's high quality or not, but I know that apple computers are way overpriced. Price does not make status, quality does.

[dukeboy42]

Apple does not have to lower prices. They just need to better justify its higher prices in terms of its hardware. Memory card readers, HDMI video out, higher memory configurations coming standard, and Blu-ray options are just a few must haves. Also, I want to see some options larger than the 13" screen size in the Macbook. I will never own a 13" screen (so the Macbook is out) and I will never own a $2,000 laptop (so the Macbook Pro is out). I guess I won't be purchase an Apple. That's a shame because I will willing to spend good money on a laptop and would like an Mac, but Apple is not willing to meet the huge demand of customers in my predicament.

[dedavyjones]

Yes it does need to lower prices, some people want a mac but simply can't afford one. What would you rather do- put $1000 to $3000 towards a car or spend it on a laptop when you can buy a laptop that runs just as well for $550-$1000? There are alot of people out there that will go for the cheaper price, especially if it can do pretty much the same things and function just as well and if it comes with more with it (more RAM, more hard drive space, etc for your money).

[jscott418]

I would be surprised if Apple does offer a cheaper laptop. On the Desktop I am not sure what Apple could do besides offering a Mac Pro Mini with more graphics. But in order to get a power graphics card. Your going to have to forgo the Mac Mini size. I just do not see Apple getting anywhere near a $750 to $800 laptop. Which you would have to do in order to really gain those PC laptop buyers that are going for those $700 Dell's and HP's. What they could do if offer a MacBook with a little more flexability. Maybe add a USB port and a PC card or express card slot and for sure a card reader slot! I cannot believe even my Mac Book Pro does not have a SD card reader??? I bought a $450 PC laptop with one!! I am sure Steve Jobs thought I did not need one.

[ferretboy88]

Lower prices from Apple? Good joke. Even if they lower them they still wont be lower than Dell.

[Rotaryfan]

you mean hp?

[random truth]

Ya, Dells cost more than apples. Hp, gateway, and compaq are the bargains.

[Placebo1985]

@sage324

I hope you realize how ridiculous the statement about status symbol is. A company does not care about being a status symbol, they care about the bottomline.

But on the other hand I understand that this snobbish "I'm better than everybody else because I own a Mac" attitude is a feature that unfortunately tends to distinguish Apple fanboys. It's OK, I'll keep my laptop that is light years ahead of Macs in hardware and cost me less than even starter model Macbooks.

[grpaul349]

..and keep updaing your antivirus software, spyware software and all of the other crap tha goes along with it... oh and which wonderful OS are you using... XP or Vista? Say what you want... but Apple people aren't clamoring to go back to their old OS - Apple actually knows how to make a worthwhile upgrade and update to their OS.

[noahjwhite]

LOL, Apparently Grupa believes apple's tv attack adds on Vista. I've had vista since day 1. No problems, no viruses, no spyware. It's almost impossible to get a virus unless your doing something illegal or stupid. Can't say the same for leopard... crash after crash after crash... and surpise... macs get viruses too. I just had to fix a coworkers mac pro because it was loaded with viruses from usenet groups.

[random truth]

apple computers, are based off efi and the guid partition scheme so no boot viruses, also the user does not run as root. Like linux - alot harder to make viruses.

[IowaNinersFan]

Well said, Placebo 1985. I second that statement.

[xbrando7]

I am very much excited about the Macbook/Pro refresh, and i definitely hope that apple lowers the price. It would show that apple is trying to adapt with today's economy and I always thought that Apple's business would get more attention if their prices were lower.

[ferretboy88]

I wanted to get a new apple product and I even sold my macbook to get the money then they came out with that crap macbook air. I bought a thinkpad x61 instead.

[Galenn20K]

Ok First sage324 you are just completely ridiculous thinking that and if you do, GOod Luck in Life with That!!

And second, Placebo1985 you are RIGHT on the Money!!!! Way more intelligent and sound than that OTHER person's comment.