Analyst: New MacBooks will start at $899-$999
In a report to clients Thursday, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster added some meat to the bare-bones invitation Apple sent out a couple hours earlier. (See here and here.)
The most important news, according to Munster, is that Apple for the first time since it discontinued the iBook will be offering its premium notebook computers below the psychologically-important $1,000 barrier. Specifically:
- Higher quality, lower-priced MacBooks. Munster expects the new MacBooks, which currently sell for $1,099 and come in black or white, to be clad in a new aluminum casing with a gesture-based touchpad and to sell for $899 to $999. “In other words, we expect the new MacBooks to be a meaningful upgrade with an [average sales price] 9% to 18% lower.”
- New MacBook Pros. Munster also expects Apple to introduce redesigned MacBook Pros at the same or slightly lower price. The current MacBook Pro design was introduced almost 3 years ago at $1,999. The new machines, he writes, will likely be thinner and include a more-sophisticated, gesture-based trackpad. He estimates they will start at $1,899.
- New MacBook Airs. Munster expects Apple to introduce new MacBook Airs with updated specs, but doesn’t offer any further detail.
- No Tablet Mac. “While we are confident that Apple will eventually bring its touchscreen technology from the iPhone to the Mac,” he writes, “we do not expect to see a touchscreen Mac this year.”
Piper Jaffray is sticking with its target price of $250 a share. In midday trading Thursday, Apple (AAPL) was up 3% to just over $92.
This is really applicable to many Americans. I love Macs, and would gladly trade my Windows XP endowed HP computer for an Apple if I had the money. Lower prices may make that a reality. Thank you APPLE!
“this is NOT the first time Apple has offered sub $1k notebooks. do the research!”
@ cg
I believe they mean Apple “premium notebook”.
This was not the case of the late iBook.
“No Tablet Mac”
This one will come at Macworld ‘09. The launch of this requires a special event.
It’ll be a bigger iPod Touch, with hand writting capabilities etc.
It’ll be the iPod of productivity, App Store connected, with MobileMe, etc.
Come one Apple. You should start them at $799 or even $749.
Apple worldwide market share will triple immediately…
this is NOT the first time Apple has offered sub $1k notebooks. do the research!
ex ped: Reworded to clarify. Thanks.
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Silicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.
So in other words Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster WAS DEAD WRONG ON THIS.
Hahaha, I always said these so-called “analysts” etc are completely WORTHLESS.
ex ped: Munster was not exactly “DEAD WRONG.” In his defense, he had the right price, but on the wrong machine. Apple did lower the price of a MacBook to $999, it just wasn’t the new MacBook. Munster was certainly closer to the mark than the conventional Internet wisdom — that Apple would introduce an $800 MacBook. That rumor was, as you put it “completely WORTHLESS.”