Apple to talk about its notebook computers

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Apple Inc. has invited the press and industry analysts to an event at its Cupertino headquarters on Oct. 14 to talk about notebook computers.

Apple’s MacBook line of laptops are long overdue to be refreshed, analysts have said. The question is price: Will Apple introduce laptops that are under $1,000?

The timing would be right for a new line of notebooks starting at $800, says VentureBeat, given that consumers are scared about the economy, their jobs and their retirement. Apple’s stock price is down more than 50% from the beginning of the year, in part out of fears that consumer spending has already seized up.

The invitation comes when there have been rumors for weeks that Apple has built a new manufacturing process to make less expensive laptops that appeared to be carved out of a single brick of aluminum. But AppleInsider this morning dismissed this new manufacturing talk, claiming it has photos of the real new laptop.

In its last earnings call, Apple executives did hint there was a ‘future product transition,’ which would cut into the company’s bottom line. It would be something, they said, that the competition would find difficult to catch up to.

Those intriguing sentences made some think Apple was planning a tablet-style computer. With Apple, it could be anything.

-- Michelle Quinn