Apple is shaking the winter chill out of its MacBook Pro Retina line.

The price of the 128GB 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has dropped by $200 to $1,500. Apple is also cutting the price of the 256GB Retina MacBook model by $300 and giving it a 2.6GHz processor. The device now runs for $1,700.

The 15-inch models are getting shifted around as well. The lower-end model now comes with a 2.4Ghz processor, and the higher-end, 16GB RAM model is improving slightly from 2.6GHz to 2.7GHz. The models will sell for $2,200 and $2,800 respectively.

The prices are a significant increase over that of the non-Retina display 13-inch MacBook Pro, which starts at $1,200. Clearly that 2,560-by-1,600 Retina resolution doesn’t come cheap, though I wonder if it’s worth quite as much as Apple’s premium makes it seem.

The reshuffling comes as Apple prepares a more significant MacBook refresh for later this year and as the larger PC market continues to struggle (a trend Apple hasn’t been entirely immune to).

Photo: Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Probably the biggest disappointment with Apple’s June announcement of the 15-inch Macbook Pro with Retina display was that the device wasn’t joined by a 13-inch variant.

That, however, is expected to change next week, when Apple brings its beloved Retina display to the smaller Macbook Pro, a source tells 9to5Mac (which was previously on target with news of the Retina Macbook Pro.)

A 13-inch Retina Pro will bring all the benefits of its title — a high-resolution screen, powerful processor– with a smaller, lighter footprint, making it perfect for highly mobile creative types.

All signs point to the device’s announcement coming on October 23,  the same day that Apple is expected to announce the iPad Mini, a smaller version of the iPad.

That the device is being called a “Macbook Pro” and not a “Macbook Air” is telling. For one, as with the 15-inch Macbook Pro with Retina, the 13-inch variant is unlikely to feature the Macbook Air’s signature tapered design.

Likewise, that “Pro” designation  also means that the 13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina will also come with a similar price to that of its $2,199 counterpart. This, in turn, means that Apple will be able to sell both the 13-inch Retina Pro and 13-inch Air alongside each other with minimal risk of the two devices cannibalizing each other’s sales.

Photo: James Pikover/VentureBeat