Apple announces new Harpertown Mac Pro and Xserve

The Apple Online Store is back online featuring new Mac Pro and Xserve models with the Intel Penryn Harpertown processor. The individual product pages are up as are the press releases.The timing is curious though. Why didn't Apple wait a week and announce the new iron at Macworld Expo? Is Apple trying to steal a little of CES' thunder? Could this foreshadow a move to Las Vegas next year?

The PowerPage's Chris Barylick thinks that it's a harbinger to a new Penryn-based MacBook Pros:

According to Macworld UK, the updated Core 2 Duo processors, known as the T8100, T8300, T9300 and T9500 models, sport clock speeds between 2.10 and 2.60 GHz and feature three to six megabytes of onboard shared L2 cache.

The announcement makes it more likely that Apple will announce updated MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops at next week's Macworld Expo. Penryn-based Mac Pro units may also be likely, though a quad-core MacBook Pro seems to be a more likely possibility later in 2008.