Apple next-gen MacBook, MacBook Pro for $800?

Apple has confirmed that it will introduce new laptop computers, on October 14, 2008, at the Apple Town Hall, in Cupertino, California. The invites that Apple has sent out to the media does not mention the Apple Brick at all, which has been the cause of furious speculation in the past few weeks.

The Apple notebook invite

The Apple invite carried an image of an aluminum Mac notebook, with a tagline that says: “The spotlight turns to Notebooks.”

It is likely that Apple will display its new 13-inch aluminum MacBooks and new 15-inch MacBook Pros at the event. Previously, Apple launched its aluminum iMacs in July 2007 at a similar event at the Apple Town Hall, Cupertino.

There have been reports on the net saying that the new Apple MacBook and Apple MacBook Pro will be priced in the range of $800 to $3100. The existing 13-inch Apple Macbook is priced in the range of $1099 and $1499, while the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro is priced between $1999 to $2799. The new price would be a dramatic drop in prices and would set a new pricepoint that would enable Apple to compete with other players in the industry who have been slashing prices.

Meanwhile, photos of Apple’s new MacBook Pro have surfaced on the net. The photo shows the base and top shell of the new MacBook Pro and displays a new port layout will a FireWire 800 port, Ethernet port, audio in and out, and adjacent US ports.

New MacBook Pro top and left port photo

The new Apple Macbook Pro photos have put paid to the theory, that has been doing the rounds on the net, that Apple is coming out with a revolutionary new manufacturing process, called the Apple Brick, for its MacBook and MacBook Pro product lines. The new process would involve fashioning a product using an aluminum block and carving it into cases using high pressure water jets and 3D lasers.

It was rumored that the process would end the need for screws and seams that join specific pieces of metal in a product.

The new Apple MacBook Pro photo show that components in the Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro would be joined using screws, albeit the screws will be at base of the Apple MacBook Pro and not on the sides.

The new Apple McBook Pro photos also show that the keys containers are carved out of the top aluminum sheet, similar to the Apple MacBook Air.

Apple Mac Book Air

Apple Insider has said that the 13-inch Apple MacBook And MacBook Pro will have extremely thin sides and a tapered bottom to give some height.

The new Apple MacBook Pro’s speaker system seems to be more finely perforated compared to the existing system and do not run to the edge of the MacBook Pro.