Apple cuts MacBook prices

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In a move likely to appeal to customers with increasingly tight budgets, Apple yesterday cut the price of its entry-level notebook to £719 in the UK and $999 in the US as it launched a new range of aluminium-clad machines at prices starting from £949.

Chief executive Steve Jobs, looking thin but active, put the focus on the new line of MacBooks, although he took a few moments at the end to joke about his health.

His blood pressure was 110 over 70, he said. "And that's all we're going to be talking about Steve's health today," he added lightly, referring to concerns earlier this year that the cancer survivor's health was deteriorating.

He said he would not take questions on the economy or his health.

The new line of metal notebooks, starting at £949 in the Uk and $1,299 in the US, are in what Gartner analyst Van Baker called the sweet spot of Apple's line. Previously a white plastic-body machine held the spot. "The biggest news is the $1,299 MacBook," he said.

The $719 price will be for an updated model of the white-body notebooks. The new aluminium machines will use Nvidia graphics alongside Intel's Core 2 Duo processors.

“Apple has invented a whole new way of building notebooks from a single block of aluminum. And, just as important, they are the industry’s greenest notebooks,” claimed Jobs.

When asked if Apple would get into the market for small "netbook" notebook computers, Jobs said, "It's a nascent market," and that Apple would see how it went.

Apple also rolled out an £649 24-inch wide display for the new MacBooks.

But shares of Apple, which have risen about 20 per cent since the company last week invited reporters to a notebook event, fell three per cent in heavy trade on the Nasdaq to $106.99 after first falling as much as five per cent. Many analysts had expected the entry-level notebook price to fall to $899 in the US.

"Bad for the stock today, good for the stock over the next couple of months," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who said that the new machines looked good even if the new entry-level price was not as low as Wall Street had hoped.

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