Ahead of the Bell: Apple to update Mac laptops

An invitation e-mailed last week was characteristically light on details, but that didn't stop the Apple rumor mill. The most tantalizing tidbit points to a MacBook with Apple's lowest laptop price to date.

In a note to investors, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote that he expects Apple to improve its entry-level MacBook, which currently costs $1,100 or more, while dropping the price to as little as $900.

Munster also wrote that the new line will likely have aluminum casing, a step up from the existing plastic-covered models, and a touch pad that can respond to gestures, a la the iPhone and the touch pads already built into higher-end MacBook Pro machines.

Personal-use laptops from Windows PC makers like Dell Inc. have broken the $500 mark, but Apple has resisted targeting the lower end of the market. The MacBook Air, an ultra-thin portable that launched in January, ranges from $1,800 to $2,600, and the powerful MacBook Pro costs as much as $2,800.

Apple's launch is timed to the holiday shopping season. The state of the economy figures to rein in consumer spending but analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies predicted that Apple may not get hurt.

"Apple is less vulnerable to economic trends than some other computer vendors because its public was never price-sensitive to begin with," Kay said in an e-mail exchange. A cheaper MacBook, even if it's still more expensive than a cheap Windows laptop, can only help goose sales.

"There's always that marginal buyer who was thinking of getting a Mac, but just couldn't quite make it over the price hurdle. This buyer will come into the market for an $800 laptop," Kay said.