Apple dropped $100 off the price of the MacBook to $999, disappointing many who thought it would be $899. The $899 price rumor was instead, most likely in reference to the new Apple display, the 24-inch Cinema Display for $899. The new display, by the way, was made just for MacBooks.

All other MacBook models also saw a dip in price, down to $1,299 and $1,599, depending on specs. 

In more expensive news:

New MacBook Pros, for $1,999 and $2,499. Both are 15.4-inch displays with  FireWire 800, dual USB, mini display port, ExpressCard 34, and Nvidia Graphics chips 9400 and 9600 GT. Differences are in memory (2 GB vs. 4 GB), hard drive (250 GB vs. 320 GB) and Intel chip speed (2.4 GHz vs. 2.53 GHz). 

Two new  MacBook Air’s for $1,799 and $2,499. Both have 13.3-inch display and 2 GB memory. Differences are in Intel Core Duo chip (1.6 GHz vs. 1.86 GHz), hard drive (120 GB hard drive vs. 128 solid-state drive).

While 17-inch notebooks weren’t announced, Steve Jobs answered in the press conference’s ensuing Q&A that the 17-inch line is being ‘refreshed.’ No news on new desktops or the Mac Mini, which is Apple’s cheapest computer at $599 and $799. 

Today’s other computer news? Samsung, out of Irvine, quietly launches its first branded-PCs in the U.S. See “Samsung enters U.S. market with 4 laptops, 1 netbook.”

Apple’s MacBook press release after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »