Apple about to drop new hardware, raise prices?
Update: MacRumors now points out that the higher prices are likely an inadvertent rollback to older graphics, as they match up with the original pricing for those machines when they were introduced. Engadget has also pointed out some similar inconsistencies on the Apple Australia and NZ sites, which may mean that Apple mistakenly pushed out old assets to the retailers with incorrect pricing.
A reader at Engadget has spotted new Apple ads on the Australian tech site PC Authority that show higher prices for the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro. Apple's Australian online store lists the most affordable versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Pro at A$1599, A$1999 and A$3599, respectively, but the ads show significantly higher "starting at" prices of A$1899, A$2399, and A$4499.
While Engadget points out that clicking on the ads leads to Apple's currently priced machines, it is possible that this is another case where online ads have predicted imminent announcements. Despite the rumors, no new Mac Pro's appeared yesterday but are still expected soon as they haven't seen a major upgrade in over a year. The rise in MacBook Pro pricing could be attributed to the cost of the i7 chipset, but it seems unlikely that in a recovering economy Apple would increase their prices significantly without having a cheaper baseline model available. Is this ad a sign of things to come? Only time and a "We'll be back soon" sticky note will tell.
