Apple Inc touched up its line of laptop computers yesterday 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 US$100 to US$999.
For the updated MacBook and MacBook Pro machines, Apple added 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 broadened its use of graphics chips and associated technologies from Nvidia Corp, at the expense of Intel Corp, which still supplies the computers' central processors. 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 thinner and lighter, and use what Apple touted as a construction "breakthrough" when it debuted in the super-slim MacBook Air in January. All the new laptops now use casings 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 US$1,299, while the most expensive MacBook Pro, which comes with two graphics chips from Nvidia for extra-fast graphics processing, costs US$2,499. An updated MacBook Air, the ultra-thin portable notebook that does not have a CD or DVD drive on board, is US$1,799.
The track pads built into MacBooks and MacBook Pros also got a makeover. They're much larger and made from glass for smooth scrolling, and instead of a separate button to mimic the clicking of a mouse, the entire track pad depresses.
Jobs declined to take questions on the economy, 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 US$1,000, despite competition from PC makers whose cheapest notebooks cost less than US$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 was benefiting from negative press for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system, and pointed out that 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 US PC market, with 7.8 percent share.
