The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display isn’t getting a price adjustment, but Apple has thrown in a slightly faster 2.4 GHz processor, while the highest-end version now has a 2.7 GHz processor and 16 GB of memory. In addition, The 13-inch MacBook Air with 256GB of storage is now priced at $1,399. Overall, Apple made is a bit less expensive to upgrade to  higher capacity storage, like 512GB and 768GB, by about $200 to $300.

Apple says the new models will be available starting Wednesday in Apple’s retail stores, at authorized resellers and on Apple’s website.

The Mac was a particular sore spot in the company’s quarterly results posted last month, as Apple sold about a million or 22 percent fewer during the last quarter of 2012 than it had during the same quarter in 2011. Apple officials blamed the unavailability of new iMac models until the end of the quarter.

This story was updated at 6:41 a.m. PT with additional detail about flash storage updates.

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What I remember most, however, is how much I toted around with me during those early shows. This is my eighth consecutive journey to the show and I’m taking far less this year. That’s good for my back and my feet, of course, but the more interesting point is that we can do so much more with fewer, more capable mobile devices.

Some of my 2006 memories include trying to find electric outlets at every possible venue, for example. Why? Because my Toshiba M205 TabletPC was only good for two or three hours on a charge. Today we have tablets that run for 10 or more hours; double if you add a keyboard accessory with integrated second battery.

Smartphones of the day were clunky beasts, although my XV6700 with Windows Phone and QWERTY keyboard served me well enough the first iteration of EVDO for mobile broadband. Fallback was the obscenely slow 1xRTT that was barely good enough for email. And the “huge” 2.8-inch screen boasted a 320 x 240 resolution that is outshined by even the cheapest feature phones of today!

I remember capturing video back then with a heavy camcorder that might get an hour of recording time on a single charge. Fast forward a few years and I switched to a very compact high-definition camera, then to a Flip camera and this year, I left the video camera at home. There’s just no need for it when you consider most smartphones today double as an HD video camera and weigh even less.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. (See what I did there?) As a result of our more connected, smaller, lighter and yet more powerful mobile devices, I’m taking less than ever to CES. Everything fits in a small backpack that’s meant to hold a 13-inch computer; and when I say everything, I mean everything: Charging cords and small accessories too. Here’s a rundown of my gear bag this year:

Computer: 13-inch MacBook Air (late 2010 model) This skinny device still runs for at least 6 hours on a single charge, which is very important since outlets can be scarce or fought over at CES. I’ve used this machine for blogging since I bought it, although for the past six months, it has generally collected dust as I moved my work effort to a Samsung Chromebook. I really wanted to take the Chromebook. Why take the Air then? One key reason: Video editing is still far easier and faster on the Air than via a web-based method on the Chromebook. And connectivity — a near-necessity for Chromebooks — is highly variable during CES.

Communications: Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2. I could certainly get away with one handset, but I like to have a backup because the airwaves get jammed up good when 150,000 CES attendees are vying for the same phone service. I have an AT&T SIM in the iPhone and a T-Mobile-compatible SIM (through Straight Talk) in the Note 2. Both can act as hotspots if needed. I’ll use these for tweeting from the show, sharing pictures, managing my schedule, and trying to check email as time allows.

Video: Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2. I don’t see the need to add the extra weight and the battery anxiety of a handheld video camera these days. Will I miss the optical zoom of my dedicated shooter? Maybe, but most video I share from CES involves close-up looks at gadgets. Hopefully, this choice to leave behind the video camera isn’t a mistake.

Still images: Canon S95 point-and-shoot. I considered leaving this behind as well since both phones are more than capable of capturing usable images. The S95 rivals the size and weight a playing card deck, however, and it provides the optical zoom that my phones don’t have. This can be handy for the massive press events where a “good seat” is still 30 meters or more from the stage. The camera was one of my favorite gadgets of 2010 and is still a super performer.

Accessories. Again, I’m taking the less is more approach. I have one small 3,000 portable battery with a USB output, so it can recharge either of my handsets. I have two USB cables: One for the Note 2 and one for the iPhone. A spare battery for the Canon and the required charger are with me. And, of course, the power cord for my MacBook Air.

That’s it. Everything fits in the old Booq bag I bought in 2005 for my Toshiba TabletPC. Compared to my first few CES events, this amount of gear is probably one-third of what I used to take in terms of weight and bulk. It’s all because of how far the mobile industry has advanced in terms of hardware, software and cloud services. Everything is lighter, runs longer, has faster connectivity and has more capabilities than ever before.

As I get older, I doubt I’ll make it through eight more CES events. It will, however, be interesting to watch the devices and services evolve during that time. Who knows: Maybe by CES 2021, the show will come to me via virtual reality instead of me trekking across the country and up and down the Vegas Strip!

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PHORCE will cost $219 for the USB model and $299 for a Mac version once the early bird discount deals are gone. Here’s a detailed look at how it works:

Inside the Phorce is a 54 Whr battery, which certainly adds a little weight to carrying around. But one of the biggest challenges we have yet to overcome with mobile devices is the power supply, as battery technologies haven’t changed all that much in the past few decades. So I’d be willing to tote along a spare power pack; in fact, I often do as I always buy a spare battery for devices when I can. And when I can’t, I tend to use a portable universal type battery system.

To give you an idea of the battery capacity, Phorce can add 4 hours of run-time to a 15-inch MacBook or 7 hours to a MacBook Air, for example. If you opt for the USB model, you can recharge an iPhone 8 times, a Galaxy S III 6 times, or full-sized iPad once. That new iPad mini can be charged 2.5 times with the Phorce. There’s also a mobile app or iOS and Android that uses Bluetooth to pair your smartphone with the Phorce bag. With it, you can see how much juice is still available or be alerted when you (and your phone) stray too far from the Phorce. The bag has 3 USB ports for charging and can be recharged in about 4 hours.

As if that weren’t enough, the bag itself is impressive. Basically, you can carry it in three different configurations based on how you attach the straps. Need a briefcase bag with handles? No problem. Prefer a backpack? Yup, you can do that too. Or change it to a messenger bag for over the shoulder travel. And the bag can expand an additional 240 cubic inches with one zipper pull.

If the project raises $150,000 or more — which won’t surprise me based on what I’ve seen so far — Phorce will be funded. As always with Kickstarter projects, you’re investing in a mini startup project, not necessarily a product itself, so keep in mind that the product itself could change slightly.

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Apple made a gross margin of $18.5 billion just in the last quarter. If you peel back the layers and look at how its different product lines contribute to this margin, you will find its MacBook lines account for $1.65 billion.

Apple’s profit from MacBook lines declined from 2011 to 2012, and the average selling price (ASP) of MacBook line dropped by $40.

It may not sound like much, but at 47 percent unit margin, that number meant $52 million in forgone profit. All because their product mix changed from selling higher priced MacBook Pros to lower priced MacBook Airs and 13-inch MacBook Pros.

That is about to change with its new product refresh, especially with the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Let us do some math.

What can we say from distribution of sales between the different MacBook versions from the $1,245 ASP numbers? For simplicity, let us treat the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro as one category with an ASP of $1099, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro as another category with an ASP of $1799. Solving for these numbers tells us that the 15-inch MacBook Pro accounted for less than 23 percent of MacBook units sold. In other words, three in four MacBooks sold are either MacBook Airs or the 13-inch version.

Shifting more of the sales to the higher priced MacBook Pro is one clear way to increase profits. Enter the new 15-inch MacBook Pro with its $2,199 price tag and two compelling value propositions — 256GB SSD (solid-state drive) and Retina Display.

For $400 more, customers get both 256GB SSD and Retina Display. And if anyone should insist on getting just SSD, they can pay $500 more instead of $400 more. That is the decoy option put in place just to make the 15-inch retina display far more attractive than it would have been by itself.

By design, the Retina Display is not available in the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. This way, those who want the insanely-high screen resolution will have to pay up at least $2,199 to get it.

This clever price discrimination will result in two positive effects on the units sold. One, some who would have settled for a MacBook Air or the 13-inch MacBook Pro will upgrade to the $2,199 MacBook Pro. Two, it will push some who preferred the 15-inch MacBook Pro to the $2,199 version with Retina Display. The net result is a higher ASP than the current $1,245 number. Even if one in ten customers of first category and one in five in the second category upgrade to Retina Display, Apple will see the MacBook ASP go up to $1,363.

If Apple sees no change in total number of units sold from the current quarter, this ASP bump will still result in a minimum additional profit of $200 million. If you include net new purchases and higher percentage up-sells, this number could easily become $1 billion in additional profit.

That is one amazing and magical product.

Rags Srinivasan is a management professional who specializes in product strategy and strategic marketing. He is currently working on big data products. He blogs at Iterative Path and tweets at @rags.

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At its WWDC event on Monday, Apple took the wraps off of new hardware in the form of a total revamp across its entire laptop line. The hardware upgrades, which are available today, will better support new features in OS X 10.8, also known as Mountain Lion.

The sought-after Retina Display comes not as an option but as part of a next-generation laptop. Here’s a brief look at the new changes across the models:

MacBook Air and Pro

The new MacBook Air devices stay in the same 11- and 13-inch configuration, but will see new Intel Core i5 and i7 processors up to 2 GHz for each of the two cores. These are the new Ivy Bridge platform from Intel which are paired with the Intel HD Graphics 4000 solution. Models are available with up to 8 GB of memory and 512 GB of flash storage.

USB 3 ports are added — and are backwards compatible with USB 2, of course — and the integrated FaceTime camera jumps up to capture 720p video. Perhaps the best aspect here among the updates: The 11-inch models drop in price by $100 over the prior versions.

Apple’s MacBook Pro also sees new internals, but at the same price points as last year. Intel dual-core i5 and i7 chips power the new 13-inch Pros up to 2.9 GHz while the 15-incher goes quad core i7 up to 2.6 GHz. Traditional hard drives up to 750 GB are on the standard models. The same USB 3 and FaceTime upgrades from the Air are here and screen resolutions are kept at 1280 x 800 and 1440 x 900 for both models. The 15-inch MacBook Pro opts for Nvidia’s GeForce GT 650M graphics.

Wait, there’s a next-generation Pro!

This is the Retina Display model people have been waiting for. The entire design of this MacBook Pro looks like an iPad and keyboard; just 0.71-inches thin. Screen resolution is 2880 x 1800 on a 15.4-inch display, showing 5.148 million pixels. Apple says with the internals, the device can run for 7 hours on a single charge and standby for up to 30 days.

How is this possible? Flash storage up to 768 GB, Nvidia’s Kepler GT 650M graphics, Intel’s quad-core Core i7 processor up to 2.7 GHz and a big power pack. Other features include a 720p FaceTime camera, dual microphons, two Thunderbolt ports, SD card slot, a pair of USB 3 ports, Bluetooth 4.0, backlit keyboard and, of course, multi-touch keyboard.

So how much will the next-generation MacBook Pro with Air-like features cost in a 4.46 pound package? Apple is charging $2,199 to start for the base model with 8GB of memory and 256 GB of flash storage with availability today.

And why would you want the new MacBook Pro? Because some Mountain Lion native apps are optimized for the display and third-party apps are expected to follow. You don’t want to see pixels, do you?

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Predictably, many are running with this. An Apple computer starting at $799 would be a big deal — the cheapest traditional laptop the company has ever made. The Digitimes report had few details, but the theme that’s emerging in the flash analysis around the idea of a $799 Air is that Apple wouldn’t do it by choice, but would be “forced to” out of some sort of response to the threat of Intel-based ultrabook notebooks — which, mind you, are direct rip-offs of the Air.

It’s not impossible Apple would make a $799 Air. They could, but if they do, it wouldn’t be for the reasons many think.

Apple is not scared of ultrabooks. Intel’s thin-and-light, optical drive-less laptop concept with a solid-state drive and all-day battery life isn’t a monolith. As Dan Ackerman wrote for CNET in March, the term “ultrabook” has been clouded as a marketing term thanks to its overuse by mainstream laptop makers, and there’s not even an accepted definition anymore — it’s essentially the catch-all term for new mid-priced laptops. Apple has never been worried about competing with mid-priced laptops from HP, Dell, Acer or Samsung.

Today, you can buy an “ultrabook” that’s thicker than an inch, is heavier than 4 pounds, has a 14-inch screen, a traditional spinning hard drive, and decent battery life. They’re also priced between $700 and $900, or slightly below the $999 entry level 11.6-inch MacBook Air. In other words — nothing has changed. PC makers have been making laptops for years that could beat Apple on specs and often price and still Apple has done its own thing and continued to rake in profits.

Ultrabooks aren’t actually selling very well. It’s old news that Intel’s $300 million initiative intended to jumpstart this category is having a rough go of it. Holiday sales of the devices were described as “ugly.” And why not, when some consumers are putting off new computer purchases as they migrate some computing experiences to mobile devices such as iPhone and iPads?

People are already buying the $999 Air. The Air is doing fine on its own after beginning life in 2008 as a niche concept and very expensive design. Once Apple redesigned it and lowered the price two years later, it’s apparently done decent business for the company. Apple has never said how many Airs it typically sells each quarter, though analysts pegged the Air as responsible for a little more than a quarter of MacBook sales back in October. It’s also the company’s entry-level computer, so it’s not unreasonable that the cheapest computer would also be one of its best-selling computers.

Apple doesn’t typically do price cuts as a response to competitors. The idea that Intel aiming for $699 ultrabooks would suddenly “force” Apple to move down in price on its successful MacBook Air doesn’t match up with Apple’s practices. Apple has indeed lowered pricing on its most successful products over the last few years. But the way in which it’s cut prices isn’t with a new model — it’s been by lowering the price of older devices.

Apple’s most important product, the iPhone, has remained priced between $199 and $399 (with two-year wireless contract) since 2008 for new models. In 2009 Apple first discounted its popular device for older models. While simultaneously introducing the typically priced new iPhone 3GS, it kept the older model iPhone 3G for sale for the discounted price of $99. The same happened with the introduction of a new phone in 2010 — the 3GS stayed around for $99 — and in 2011, the two-year old iPhone 3GS became free with contract, while the iPhone 4 went down to $99. It has followed a similar pattern with the iPad — with the introduction of the third-generation iPad in January, Apple began offering the year-old iPad 2 for $399 instead of the normal $499 entry price.

So if Apple does decide to price a MacBook Air at $799, it likely won’t be to replace the $999 11.6-inch model that’s selling just fine, but perhaps as last year’s model simply discounted. But in general, this is a Digitimes report we’re talking about — I wouldn’t hold your breath for a cheaper MacBook.

Note: This was updated to clarify that a $799 MacBook Air would be Apple’s cheapest laptop ever, not cheapest computer, and that the first iPhone discount was in 2009.

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Unlike other keyboard cases, Brydge appears more secure: It uses a patent-pending hinge to secure an iPad and allows the entire setup to open up a full 180-degrees. This also allows the iPad to tilt in a myriad of positions instead of being fixed to a few. A nice addition is the option for stereo speakers. You’ll pay at least $30 more for that luxury, but’s a small cost to upgrade from the iPad’s single internal speaker.

The team behind Brydge says the product will work with both the iPad 2 and the newest iPad. Battery life is going to vary greatly due to speaker use, but the Brydge will easily recharge over a microUSB connection. Apple-specific keys are also part of the QWERTY setup, which should come in handy.

I was recently enamored by the $99 Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad, but I may hold off and back the Brydge instead. The addition of speakers is a big draw, for starters. But on the flipside, the Brydge will add 1.28 pounds to an iPad. As a result, the iPad will not only look like a MacBook Air, but weigh nearly as much as one too!

While the Brydge looks Apple-like, I wouldn’t count on Apple bringing a similar product. Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said (in reference to convertible tablets), “You can converge a toaster and refrigerator, but these things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user,” so I don’t expect an iPad to officially converge with an Air.

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CPU Central:

On April 8 Intel will announce Z77, Z75, H77 and B75 chipsets. On the same day we should see numerous reviews of 75 and 77 boards with, well, Sandy Bridge CPUs. Ivy Bridge processors will be announced in the 4th week of April, between April 22 and April 28. The announcement will include only quad-core models: mobile Core i7 and Core i7 Extreme families, desktop Core i7, Core i5-3570K, i5-3570T, i5-3550, i5-3550S, i5-3450 and i5-3450S. The announced chips will be available for sale on April 29.

What does this all mean? An iMac upgrade? Sure, why not. But my best guess is that sometime in early summer we will see the launch of a new 15-inch Macbook Pro that is thinner and lighter. Frankly, the current generation of Macbook Pros are long in the tooth. After you have used the 13-inch Macbook Air, switching back to even the fastest Macbook Pro feels like a step back — it is heavy and feels like a brick. Instapaper creator Marco Arment thinks that there could be two 15-inch machines, a Pro and an Air:

My guess is that they pick two: they make a 15″ Air that drops the Pro’s discrete GPUand downgrades to dual-core 17-watt CPUs, effectively pairing Air-class performance with a larger screen. In a 15″ Air-like chassis, this could be very cool-running and quiet with a great battery life and a significant weight savings from the 15″ MacBook Pro. Apple could plausibly launch such a 15″ Air in June with the 1.8 GHz i5-3427U and 2.0 GHz i7-3667U, also bringing those CPU options to the 11″ and 13″ Airs in a minor simultaneous update. To placate pro users and buy some time until Intel makes lower-wattage quad-core CPUs, Apple could keep selling the current-style 15″ MacBook Pro with fast, hot CPUs and GPUs alongside the 15″ Air.

Earlier this year, after reading a report on Electric Pig, Erica Ogg argued that it makes sense for Apple to merge the Air and Pro line-ups, and they would be better off simplifying things even further for mainstream consumers. What do you guys think?

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It’s been rumored before, but on Wednesday a new report is saying that not only will Apple introduce a 15-inch Air, it will replace the 15-inch Pro, or as Electricpig’s source put it, “effectively killing the Pro for the average consumer.” That is, the 17-inch MacBook Pro might hang around for professionals who need that larger screen. They place the timing of the rollout of new MacBook Airs in April.

The source is a “premium Mac accessory maker” involved in docking solutions. That they would have direct knowledge of Apple’s plans isn’t too likely, but that they would be planning for an updated MacBook would be very much expected.

But whether the source does have direct knowledge or not, expanding the MacBook Air lineup is a very logical step for Apple to take. After using an Air for any amount of time, the Pro, while more powerful and with more ports, feels bulky by comparison.

The Air is no longer an expensive, niche device: the 13-inch Air starts at $1,299 and the 13-inch Pro starts at $1,199. It’s one of Apple’s best-selling laptops — as of last fall, it accounted for nearly a third of MacBooks sold. That’s a good demonstration that Air characteristics that were once considered trade-offs (no optical drive, no ethernet port, less local storage) aren’t barriers for everyone, especially in today’s cloud- and iCloud-centric computing era.

For these reasons it’s fairly easy to see why Apple would want to expand the Air lineup to larger screen sizes and potentially more buyers. But it’s true that the Air isn’t for everybody. Would you be disappointed if Apple discontinued the 15-inch MacBook Pro?

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