WWDC Mac: Updated MacBook Pro, Air; OS X Snow Leopard pricing

Although few expected major hardware announcements at this year’s show, Apple has once again proven its ability to surprise with updated configurations and greatly reduced prices across its hot-selling MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air product lines. For Snow Leopard, Apple’s baking in Exchange Support and pricing starts at $29 for OS X 10.5 users (i.e. upgrade) and the family pack going for $49.

Apple has announced updated 15 inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and “new” 13-inch MacBook Pro models:

— $1,699 (2.53GHZ, 4GB), $1,999 (2.66GHz, 4GB, 320GB), $2,299 (2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD)

— MacBook Air w/ 1.8GHz is $1499 ($300 less than before), 128GB SSD for $1799 ($700 off since yesterday)
• 1.86GHz, 2GB, 9400M, 120GB ($1,499); 2.13GHz, 2GB, 9400M, 128GB SSD ($1,799)

— 13 inch MacBook Pro starting from $1,199, includes FireWire (yeah!)
• 2.26GHz, 2GB, 9400M, 160GB, SD card slot ($1,199), 2.53GHz, 4GB, 250GB, 9400M, SD card slot ($1,499)

So, Apple’s now set the standard for removable media with the addition of SD card readers? Perhaps on a day not too distant June 8 will be remembered as the day Apple didn’t add Blu-ray to the Mac.

Today’s Mac-related press releases
Apple Updates MacBook Pro Family with New Models & Innovative Built-in Battery for Up to 40 Percent Longer Battery Life
Apple Unveils Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Apple Introduces Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard
Apple Releases Safari 4—The World’s Fastest & Most Innovative Browser

See also:
— Apple WWDC rumor roundup
— ‘iPod touch on steroids’ [aka Mac touch] not until 2010?
— Will netbook party be over before Apple arrives?

Here kitty, kitty…

What’s new, coming in OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard:

— Grand Central Dispatch
• Integrated multi-core support throughout Leopard
• Baked into all system APIs, app tuning tools available

— OpenCL — Leverages GPU power to get general computing tasks done more effciently
• See also: OpenCL: What’s it all about?

— Integrated Exchange support in Mail, iCal and Address Book
• Spotlight search for Exchange messages

— September: Snow Leopard will be available for all Intel Macs (No PowerPC)
• Priced at $29—for Leopard users; Family pack at $49

Conclusions

Lots of great surprises for the Mac faithful today. Although many expected the unibody MacBook to get a speed bump, I don’t remember anyone suggesting the sweeping changes (FireWire returns!) and rather significant price cuts that we actually got.

The Snow Leopard portion of the keynote didn’t offer much in the way of surprises until the pricing was announced, which is about as generous one can imagine from Apple. Nevertheless there are disappointments here in that Snow Leopard won’t be available until September and it won’t run on PowerPC Macs.

Of course, no one expected Snow Leopard to offer PPC compatibility, but this news is still a bit of a let down.

That said, September is traditionally the month Apple updates the iPod and Snow Leopard’s timing could be a positive omen vis-a-vis the highly-anticipated Mac touch (aka iPod touch on Steroids)

This above report has been compiled from the TUAW, Gizmodo and Macworld liveblogs.

• Snow Leopard sales strong
• Snow Leopard up to 10 percent more energy efficient than Leopard
• Snow Leopard doubles prior record sales
• Snow Leopard may ship early
• Microsoft divulges exorbitant pricing for Office 2008 for Mac