“Last Wednesday, he posted an ‘exclusive’ on his blog — The Inquisitr — under the headline: ‘Apple to launch $800 laptop.’ Although his scoop was unsourced, the news that Apple was set to announce its cheapest notebook computer ever was picked up by Apple blogs and mainstream publications around the world — including the New York Times. Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi even published a spreadsheet calculating how much an $800 laptop would increase Apple’s available market,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.
“So when Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s new line of laptops on Tuesday with starting prices of $1,299 for the MacBook and $1,999 for the MacBook Pro, you could almost hear the sound of Apple’s (AAPL) shares falling,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “What this means is that Apple is not — with one exception — lowering prices in order to grow its market share… The one exception is the original white MacBook — the best-selling MacBook ever, according to Jobs — which sold for $1,099 when it was introduced two years ago and will now sell for $999.”
“‘Apple is very good at pricing,’ says Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group, who believes Apple was right to hold the prices of the new MacBooks steady. ‘They haven’t run out of headroom yet. I expect they will eventually find a way to build out a line that will come in at $799, but they’ll do it in their own way and at their own pace,'” Elmer-DeWitt reports.
Full article here.