42 comments

• 

  Kevin C. Tofel

  8 months ago

  Some might be surprised but if folks knew what to look for, they might have seen this coming: http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/10/3-reasons-wel...
• 

  Louis Gray

  8 months ago

  I certainly hope this is true. Apple knows how to innovate through downturns.
• 

  Mat Packer

  8 months ago

  I would kill for an ultra portable Apple laptop.
• 

  Paul

  8 months ago

  Cool - while everyone is trying to keep their pants up in a volatile economy, Apple sneaks in and grabs market share.
• 

  arn

  8 months ago

  not to rain on any parades... but Apple retailers don't typically get price lists 10 days in advance.
• 

  Ryo

  8 months ago

  Hmm, lets see if Jobso is finally coming back to the ground. But I doubt it, that Apple brings a $800 Laptop with much technical goodies, other that Gadgets and lifestyle stuff. Might be a "cool" bubble again. But when it's a new, powerful netbook, small and long-life battery, it might hit the markets.
• 

  don

  8 months ago

  It;s probably a new line. Apple is unlikely to give up their "good, better, best" offering mantra. So 8 to 12 says new line.
• 

  bradg60

  8 months ago

  Mr. Riley,
  
  You write in your article, "An $800 laptop would be the first sub-$1000 laptop offered by Apple..."
  
  Doh! You need to check your facts a little better.
  
  Apple released a $999 G3 iBook on November 6, 2002 - almost SIX years ago.
  
  http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1229
• 

  Martin

  8 months ago

  If apple was giving prices to their outlets 10 days in advance WE WOULD KNOW THAT BY NOW !
  
  new in the business ?
  
  
  obviously they DON'T ! how can you be so naive ?., retail outlets don't have a clue about new products, they are just like anybody else, reading rumor sites.
• 

  whatwhat

  8 months ago

  Even retail Apple stores don't find out they need to and how to reorganize the store for new products that just arrived or will arrive the next day - all within a day or two. Ten days is ludicrous - UNLESS this guy with the pricelist is corporate (internal). But he definitely isn't working retail, not even at an Apple store.
• 

  Kristin

  8 months ago

  I was in a Mac store in Ireland today - we don't have a proper Apple store where I live - and the salesperson told me that I should wait until the 16th to buy a new laptop to replace my newly dead one, as there will be a new line out and 'that one there might be coming down in price' (meaning the low-end MacBook). Not sure what that means, exactly, but I'm hoping that I picked a good time to find out that iBooks don't like tea - not even Earl Grey. :(
• 

  Mark S - Lansing mi

  8 months ago

  PLEASE APPLE - NO MORE COMBO DRIVE! :-)
• 

  InX

  8 months ago

  As this:
  
  Next Apple moves will be Books and Games…
  http://spidouz.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/next-ap...
  
  THAT WILL BE A REVOLUTION!
• 

  F.Phil

  8 months ago

  There is no new manufacturing process, and the picture above doesn't indicate anything to do with fabrication at all.
  
  As pointed out by others, price lists don't "normally" come in 10 days, they "normally" come in under a working week (5 days). And retailer catagogues, ESPECIALLY if there is a price, include more than Mac1, Mac2 or whatever. Did the source give the product numbers? No? That's that then.
• 

  graffiti

  8 months ago

  damn
• 

  Aaron Brazell

  8 months ago

  It would appear there is some merit to the idea of a new laptop line. Special event on Oct 14.
  
  http://finance.google.com/group/google.finance....
• 

  brozo

  8 months ago

  lol, apple retailers get advanced notice and price lists, lololol
• 

  Greg

  8 months ago

  I don't know it sure sounds fishy to me. Steve Jobs would fire anyone who leaked or even hinted at a new product. So the idea that they would give stores a heads up does not feel right.
• 

  B.D. Gallof

  8 months ago

  $800 sounds like a netbook killer. Expect it to be their version to compete with the Asus eee's, MSI Wind, Dell mini, etc. Some sort of melding of something they can upsell you on itune or apps, or something. Apple is looking for new niches, and pressing into the Netbook fray, whose current examples are all flawed, might be where this is aimed.
  
  Dual Core Atom mayhap?
• 

  robinson

  8 months ago

  To the poster who tried to criticize the article by claiming that Apple previously released a sub-$1000 notebook-- yeah, for $999! You've had the wool pulled over your eyes by that old .99, 9.99, 99.99 pricing...or cars at $29,995 all trying to make the customer think they're getting something for less. It's really ridiculous, yet retailers persist in it.
  
  You also forgot tax! Which would bring it well above $1,000.
  
  An $800 notebook, even with tax, would be the first--and would generate sales like crazy. I mean if people fall for the $999 price tricky, they'll flock to an Apple laptop costing ONLY $800!!
• 

  paul

  8 months ago

  there's no sales tax in Oregon. So $999 is still less than $1000. Or are you doing math on some other platform?
• 

  schmidt

  8 months ago

  Methinks you're protesting too much! (Oregon has no sales tax?! One of the few lower 48 w/o it, right?) robinson makes a good point. I, too, am tired of Sneaky Pete pricing, putting it just below a rounded, sensible amount. Leads to such tom-foolery as people claiming that Apple's already released a sub-$1000 notebook. Plus, they don't have a laptop at the price in the line up now!
• 

  OS11

  8 months ago

  if you buy out of state, from a non-national firm, you don't pay sales tax...
  
  always check the mac price matrix to get the best deal...
  
  www.pcprices.net
• 

  scottmcdaniel

  8 months ago

  Still double the cost of a Dell Mini 9 that runs Leopard. :(
• 

  Dave Johnston

  8 months ago

  I'm buying 9 on the first day.
  
  Steve is going to save the world economy on October 14.
• 

  racy_rick

  8 months ago

  This is great news. Reminds me of when Next Computer had their huge JIT facility in Redwood. Too bad they never sold that many. Old Next Cubes are *serious* collector's items now.
• 

  CuriousG

  8 months ago

  Wonder if it is the new touch screen laptop that has been previously discussed? Like a large iPhone or something.
  
  http://www.sellingcr.com/crblog
• 

  Scott

  8 months ago

  I am thinking the new Notebook might just be a "Net Book".
  
  These Netbooks seem to be attracting a lot of attention lately.
  
  Now that we can Pay Bills Online, Shop, Email, Play Games etc., it only seems logical to me that a Netbook might be on the horizon.
  
  I guess time will tell.
  
  Can't wait for Tuesday...
  
  Peace...
• 

  drew

  8 months ago

  www.digthemoment.com
• 

  Mike

  8 months ago

  You can get a brand new Apple laptop on eBay for less than $800.. I know because I purchased one, just make sure that it's a qualified seller and not someone with a zero rating.
• 

  Dan_Knight

  8 months ago

  I worked for an Apple dealer a long, long time ago, and they did provide price lists a couple weeks in advance. They had code names for the new products, and store managers were given enough information so they could preorder inventory and have it available on the release date.
  
  How else are dealers supposed to be able to get their orders in the pipeline?
• 

  dill

  8 months ago

  we all have to keep i mind that whatever apple rolls out has to be completly awsome. ive never seen any crappy product from apple. windows on the other hand...
• 

  Velten

  8 months ago

  Great :) I will wait for ;) Inf france thanks for the news ;)
• 

  Arthur

  8 months ago

  What's your source?
• 

  Duncan Riley

  8 months ago

  Arthur
  some one with access to the price list.
• 

  tobias

  8 months ago

  Were did you get the info that Apple retailers typically get price lists 10 days in advance? According to other websites this is not the case.
• 

  Bo

  8 months ago

  I worked for an Apple reseller for 22 years until March of this year. We often did not get the price lists until the day before. I never recall getting them ten days in advance.
• 

  F.Phil

  8 months ago

  Product codes?
• 

  Mo

  8 months ago

  At $800, an Apple laptop is still overpriced, targeted to a niche market, and will not spark sales by a monumental difference (except with the usual fanboys and people who buy laptops to match their new shoes or designer purse). As much as I hate certain aspects of Vista, I don't hate it enough to pay double the price for half the laptop. And before anyone calls me a PC fanboy, I'm a dual owner folks. I own an iMac and a PC. I like my iMac but I do think I overpaid for what I got. On top of that, Apple released a new version of my model a few months later causing the price of the one I bought to drop three hundred dollars less than what I paid. That makes me VERY hesitant to purchase their products in the future. The only reason they made good after doing the same thing to early iPhone users is because they had so much to lose. Times are much too hard to throw away $300. If people feel otherwise, well that helps explain how our economy got in this predicament to begin with. Especially those who pay the premium for nothing more than the "hip factor". It's a computer, not a fashion accessory. On top of that, I bought the iMac primarily on the strength of iMovie (I do a lot of home editing), only to have them totally mess that up with version '08. I drank the Kool Aid once but never again. If Apple truly wants to take over the market, it's time to ditch the price gouging and be more upfront about pricing and impending new releases. Also, because of software and compatibility and familiarity, I use my PC 99% of the time.
• 

  Chris

  8 months ago

  Well you kind of said it all at the end. You are familiar with your Windows environment so you use it 99% of the time. You never allowed yourself to learn much about the Mac (both OS and hardware) and now you think you paid too much. That's too bad and I know many people feel the way you do. But there's no way on Earth you'll get the performance or compatibility of a Mac at $400 for your Windows PC. How can I say that? Peformance-wise, it's obvious. You get what you pay for. A $400 laptop or desktop isn't going to get you very far. And compatibility-wise you can run Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and any flavor of Linux on the Mac. Either virtually or through the hardware itself using Boot Camp.
  
  I can never talk a person out of their beliefs but most people do very direct math. I pay $400 for a Dell laptop or $1000 for an Apple laptop. Apple sux! But it's not so simple. I have one computer to run all of my OS's and when I go to sell it, and believe me I've sold a lot of Apple computers on eBay, I'll get a much more decent price than you'll get for your $400 laptop. Also, I've had my iMac for 3 years and it's still going strong. I feel no need to upgrade because it was built well in the first place.
  
  You get what you pay for.
• 

  Joe Public

  8 months ago

  Some years ago I was tasked with finding a new laptop for our company to standardize on, and it had to be Windows. I researched, test drove a few models and settled on Toshiba. We bought one, put it through a little over a weeks worth of testing, got the green light to buy more and found we couldn't buy that model anymore. It hadn't been replaced with a better version of the same machine, the product line was replaced with similar but different models; that screen size was on a lesser machine, but the processor was in a bigger product, and the network and media options were completely different. We researched, settled on another configuration, bought one new one and put it through another week of testing. Got the green light, tried to order more and the same thing had happened again.
  
  Macs on the other hand, stick to a basic form factor, incrementally improve upon it over time (sometimes radically), but basically I can always get the low, middle or high end laptop or tower for roughly the same price, I just get more for that money over time.
  
  Your iMac didn't stop working because that model dropped in price, nor did it become less capable of doing what you bought it for. When was the last time you bought anything that wasn't worth less the next day? Nobody complains about cars doing this, and they lose a lot more than $300. You will always get more or pay less, sometimes both, if you wait until tomorrow. The question is do you get value for your purchase in the time between now and the price drop? If you know there's something new coming, wait, otherwise buy what you need when you need it and don't complain if the price drops after the return period has expired.
  
  I don't buy Mac's because they're 'hip', and I take offense to that remark. I run a business, and our business runs on Macs. We do run Windows - several flavours actually, but we run them via Parallels on our Macs, and being able to do so means I don't need 2 machines, I don't need to dual or triple boot a PC, and I get to do all my testing in the environment I develop in. There's no 'hip' factor - it's a tool that simply outperforms the other options by a wide margin. I'm also ahead of the game in terms of cost because of what the Mac can do on its own.
  
  If you 'drank the kool aid', then you already had a problem, and purchasing the Mac didn't cause it, it simply helped exasperate it, giving you a sense of entitlement over the belief you already had. Honestly you're probably happier working on your PC, and you should continue to do that. If that makes you happy, then why fight it?
• 

  AMG

  8 months ago

  What typical BS.... First of all, as has been previously mention with regard to your iMac - Was it somehow less capable or afflicted in anyway with the release of a new model? Was the machine any less useable? Absolutely NOT... Even if it was something to get that seriously bent over, how can you possibly lay fault on Apple simply because you FAILED to do even a modicum of research before you bought your computer - Apple is typically very regular with their product refreshes and it's fairly easy to anticipate one. You dropped the ball pal. Regardless, I never knew that other manufacturers never, ever update their product lines... Give me a break.
  
  Part 2 of your typical BS concerns the overpriced comments... Overpriced compared to whom? Companies that build hardware only and license their operating system from another company? Why is it people like you consistently fail to acknowledge the fact that Apple spends tremendous sums of time and money developing not only their operating system, but a full featured suite of applications that is included on every machine they sell? Once again I apologize because I never realized that Apple was able to develop such things completely free of charge.
  
  And finally... How many $400 budget laptops run all of the bloated features in Vista? Hmm... That's what I thought.
  
  You should learn how to ride the horse before you sit high on top of it...