Picture gallery: Click here for images of the new laptops

Mousetrap: Rumour watch - Is Steve Jobs leaving Apple?

Apple unveiled its new range of laptop computers last night, boasting aluminium MacBooks with glass trackpads and more powerful 3D graphics performance for the premium MacBook Pro series.

But rumours of cheaper notebooks were proved false with only a small drop of $100 in price for the basic 2.1 GHz white plastic MacBook to $999. In the UK, the basic MacBook now costs £719 including VAT.

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While this is still the first sub-$1,000 Apple laptop, the company is sticking firmly to its high-end brand status.

There has been pressure on Apple to drop its prices to compete with rivals in the fast-growing notebook sector of the market where the cheapest “netbooks” cost as little as $400.

Analysts argued that falling consumer confidence might also force Apple to cut prices in the run-up to Christmas.

But Steve Jobs, Apple‘s chief executive, said that the Mac series of laptops and computers now had an 18 per cent share by unit sales of the US market and was gaining share all the time.

He said the new range of aluminium bodied MacBooks offered the same features as the old MacBook Pro series but for $700 less while the new Pro series was also substantially improved.

Apple is switching to Nvidia to supply its graphics chips for all its new laptops. Mr Jobs said processing-intensive activities such as playing 3D video games were as much as six times faster with the new chips.

Apple claimed a manufacturing breakthrough with the way the aluminium casings were cut and tooled, ensuring the laptops were lighter and used fewer parts.

At the lowest end of the redesigned laptop range, a MacBook will cost $1,299 (£949 in the UK), while the most expensive 15-inch display MacBook Pro, which comes with two graphics chips from Nvidia for extra fast graphics processing, costs $2,499 (£1,749 in the UK).

An updated MacBook Air, the ultra-thin portable notebook that does not have a CD or DVD drive, is $1,799 (£1,299).

The new machines are expected to be in Apple stores on Wednesday and can be ordered online immediately.

The most eye-catching innovation across the range is the new trackpad. The new multi-touch glass trackpad supports a variety of gestures, including a four-finger gesture for the first time. The entire trackpad also acts as a button.

Three versions of MacBooks will be available. The old 13-inch display white plastic Macbook will continue to be sold, reduced in price from $1,099 to $999.

Two new aluminium chassis MacBooks are being introduced, both with LED backlit displays: the first at $1,299 (£949 in the UK)with a 2.0Ghz processor and the second at $1,599 (£1,149 in the UK) with more onboard memory, 2.4GHz and a backlit keyboard.

As for the future, Mr Jobs said that the range would again be refreshed but netbooks were not under consideration at the moment. “That’s a nascent market that’s just getting started,” he said

And as for laptops with touchscreens, Mr Jobs said: “We’ve certainly experimented with it, as you might imagine, and it currently doesn’t make a lot of sense to us."

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