Thoughts on Apple's new products

I'm going to round up my coverage of Apple's notebook event by sharing my thoughts on the new products.

MacBook Air

Apple's certainly packed more into the MacBook Air - the faster CPU and improved GPU should be welcome. There's also more storage. However, I just can't see myself parting with $1,799 to $2,499 for a notebook with such limited connectivity.

MacBook

Some sweet updates there, and I'm especially intrigued by the multi-touch trackpad, but I'm kinda disappointed that all I get for $1,000 is a one without the unibody aluminum shell and without the new trackpad.

MacBook Pro

The 15" MacBook Pro is now where it's all happening. These machines look sweet. They really sing to me on that "cool shiny thing" level.

However, given that they contain a lot of new technology (trackpad, screen, shell, NVIDIA chips) I think I'll be waiting a few weeks to see what bugs appear before even thinking about getting one.

24-inch LED-backlit cinema display

Nice, the ultimate notebook accessory! Ideal if you're notebook is a desktop replacement.

Closing thoughts ...

Interesting revamp of the MacBook and MacBook Pro, but there's one aspect that bothers me - cost.

Looking at the prices for the new kit, it's clear to me that Apple doesn't seem to exists in a world plagued by financial uncertainty. In fact, Apple's price list seems to scream "Credit crisis? What credit crisis?" It seems that Apple is gambling that spending on Apple-badged shiny things isn't going to tail off. Will that gamble pay off? We'll see in a few months ...

Oh, and Apple stock ended the day down. However, put Apple's chart for today next to that of the Dow and the NASDAQ and you'll notice that they look almost identical, so Apple's stock went the way of the rest of the market.