One of the best days for an Apple fanboy/girl is when Apple announces new product. Well, I would argue a close second to that would be when Apple announces price drops for their existing products.

Apple did just that with their newest Mac line on Wednesday, when they dropped the prices and tweaked the processors in the Retina Display line. Apple dropped the 13″ models to $1499 and $1699, while upping the processor in the higher end model. They also tweaked the 15″ line by increasing the processors for the same price.

For those of you who like the idea of this new MacBook Pro, Apple has made a significant move to help make that idea a reality.

I believe this move, by Apple, is much more of a sign that they are moving away from the traditional MacBook Pro line. The Retinas, when they were first released last year, had that significant price gap to really distinguish them from the regular Pro line. With this change in price, the Retina line is now starting to encroach on the pricing of the traditional line, making it much more practical for a lot of people to get a Retina.

There is another sign of a migration away from the regular line of Pros, it appears Apple has removed the ‘high end’ option in the 15″ MacBook Pro line. With every computer that Apple makes, they offer two options, a high end and a low end option. On Apple’s website only one model of the regular 15″ Pro is available for order. I interpret this as a model-by-model elimination of the regular line. Now if a customer wants a ‘high end’ 15″ Pro, almost by default they have to get a 15″ Retina.

The question now is, what’s the next step for Apple to complete this transition? Do they eliminate a 13″ model just like they did the 15″ model? Do they eliminate the 15″ completely and just have a 15″ Retina for a while, do they do that to the 13″?

Regardless of the next steps, it appears the wheels are in full motion to move away from the traditional MacBook Pros to the Retina models.

CUPERTINO, California—February 13, 2013—Apple® is making the MacBook Pro® with Retina® display faster and more affordable with updated processors and lower starting prices. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now starts at $1,499 for 128GB of flash, and $1,699 for a new 2.6 GHz processor and 256GB of flash. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now features a faster 2.4 GHz quad-core processor, and the top-of-the-line 15-inch notebook comes with a new 2.7 GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of memory. Apple today also announced that the 13-inch MacBook Air® with 256GB of flash has a new lower price of $1,399.

The MacBook Pro with Retina display features the world’s highest resolution notebook display. Whether you’re reading emails, writing text, editing home movies in HD or retouching professional photography, everything appears vibrant, detailed and sharp, delivering an unrivaled viewing experience. The MacBook Pro with Retina display features flash storage that is up to four times faster than traditional notebook hard drives, and delivers improved reliability, instant-on responsiveness and up to 30 days of standby time.

Pricing & Availability
The updated MacBook Pro with Retina display and MacBook Air models are available today through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Pricing details, technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at www.apple.com/macbook-pro andwww.apple.com/macbookair.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

It has been about 13-years since iTunes came out and about 10-years since the iTunes Store opened. Since then 25 billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes. Imagine that for a second, 25 billion songs for between 69¢ and $1.29. The music industry was hurting pretty bad at the turn of the century with Napster and the other music piracy services out there. It can be argued that Apple releasing the iTunes Store rescued the music industry as we knew it. Now with Pandora and Spotify, the industry is evolving again.

Anyway, kudos to Apple for reaching 25 billion songs! Here is the offical press release.

CUPERTINO, California―February 6, 2013―Apple® today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 25 billion songs from the iTunes Store® (www.itunes.com), the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. The 25 billionth song, “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch, was purchased by Phillip Lüpke from Germany. As the downloader of the 25 billionth song, Phillip will receive a €10,000 iTunes® Gift Card. 

“We are grateful to our users whose passion for music over the past 10 years has made iTunes the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Averaging over 15,000 songs downloaded per minute, the iTunes Store connects music fans with their favorite artists, including global sensations like Adele and Coldplay and new artists like The Lumineers, on a scale we never imagined possible.”

“In a lot of ways, iTunes has leveled the playing field for musicians. Whether you’re unsigned, indie, major, whatever—it’s the place most people go to buy digital music,” said Wesley Schultz, guitarist and lead vocalist of The Lumineers. “iTunes doesn’t exclude any musicians simply because they’re not yet established or popular.”

The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular music store with a catalog of over 26 million songs and over 25 billion songs downloaded, and is available in 119 countries. The iTunes Store is the best way for iPhone®, iPad®, iPod®, Mac® and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music online. All music on the iTunes Store comes in iTunes Plus®, Apple’s DRM-free format with high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. iTunes in the Cloud lets you download your previously purchased iTunes music to your devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to your iOS devices.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Who is ready for another Mac OS? Probably not a lot of people, considering Mountain Lion came out just last summer. It does seem that another feline creature is beginning to lurk through the internets out there. MacRumors.com, as well as some other Mac news sites, have caught the new OS in their web analytics. It seems Apple is testing the new, secret operating system and this is an exert from MacRumors.com about catching Apple’s new cat:

“Apple needs to test new platforms with a wide range of websites, and server logs can be examined to see which operating systems and browsers are in use, tipping off sites when a new OS appears. While such data can be easily faked in browsers, the trends currently being observed are consistent with past releases and previous examinations have shown OS X 10.9 hits coming from IP addresses associated with Apple.”

It should come at no surprise that Apple is working on a new operating system, once one OS is complete Apple looks forward to the next. It is the same practice that they take with iOS. Now that the cover is slowly being blown off this new OS, the next question is when will we see it? If Apple follows the pattern of the last couple, we could see it at WWDC (the Apple developers conference) in June and then have it just a few months later. Over the last couple of Mac OS product cycles, they’ve released the next version between one and two years apart. So it’s been rapid progression from one to the next. However, it’s anyones guess at this point when we’ll see 10.9. It is also rumored that Apple’s new big cat will be called ‘Lynx’, following the tradition of the likes of Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, the Leopards, and the Lions.

There are some questions whether we may see Siri in this version of the OS. Outside of that, everyone will wonder what else will they add in the next OS, will it be more and more like iOS?

To see what else MacRumors had to say one it, click on this link. 

CUPERTINO, California―January 29, 2013―Apple® today announced a 128GB* version of the fourth generation iPad® with Retina® display. The 128GB iPad with Wi-Fi and iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular models provide twice the storage capacity of the 64GB models to hold even more valuable content including photos, documents, projects, presentations, books, movies, TV shows, music and apps.

“With more than 120 million iPads sold, it’s clear that customers around the world love their iPads, and every day they are finding more great reasons to work, learn and play on their iPads rather than their old PCs,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With twice the storage capacity and an unparalleled selection of over 300,000 native iPad apps, enterprises, educators and artists have even more reasons to use iPad for all their business and personal needs.”

iPad continues to have a significant impact on business with virtually all of the Fortune 500 and over 85 percent of the Global 500 currently deploying or testing iPad. Companies regularly utilizing large amounts of data such as 3D CAD files, X-rays, film edits, music tracks, project blueprints, training videos and service manuals all benefit from having a greater choice of storage options for iPad. The over 10 million iWork® users, and customers who rely on other incredible apps like Global Apptitude for analyzing team film and creating digital playbooks, Auria for an incredible 48 track recording system, or AutoCAD for drafting architectural and engineering drawings, also benefit greatly from having the choice of an iPad with more storage capacity.

“Our AutoCAD WS app for iOS was designed to give customers seamless access to their designs anywhere, anytime,” said Amy Bunszel, vice president of AutoCAD products for Autodesk. “These files are often large and highly detailed so having the thin and light iPad with its Multitouch display, integrated camera and all-day battery life, is a real advantage for iPad users to view, edit and share their AutoCAD data.”

“The features and capabilities of iPad give us the ability to set a new standard for multitrack recording and editing on a mobile device,” said Rim Buntinas, WaveMachine Labs’ CEO. “Users of the Auria app can play 48 mono or stereo 24bit/96 kHz tracks simultaneously, record up to 24 of those tracks simultaneously, and also edit and mix with familiar tools. With its portability and all-day battery life, iPad has revolutionized recording for audio professionals allowing artists to record anywhere.”

“The bottom line for our customers is winning football games, and iPad running our GamePlan solution unquestionably helps players be as prepared as possible,” said Randall Fusee, Global Apptitude Co-Founder. “The iPad’s unbeatable combination of security, being thin and light, having an incredible Retina display and also being powerful enough to handle large amounts of data enables us to deliver a product that takes film study to a new level and ultimately gives our users the best opportunity to prepare, execute and win.”

The fourth generation iPad features a gorgeous 9.7-inch Retina display, Apple-designed A6X chip, FaceTime® HD camera, iOS 6.1 and ultrafast wireless performance**. iOS 6.1 includes support for additional LTE networks around the world***, and iTunes Match℠ subscribers can download individual songs to their iOS devices from iCloud®.

iPad runs over 800,000 apps available on the App Store℠, including more than 300,000 apps designed specifically for iPad, from a wide range of categories including books, games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. iPad also supports the more than 5,000 newspapers and magazines offered in Newsstand, and the more than 1.5 million books available on the iBookstore℠.

Pricing & Availability
The new 128GB versions of the fourth generation iPad will be available starting Tuesday, February 5, in black or white, for a suggested retail price of $799 (US) for the iPad with Wi-Fi model and $929 (US) for the iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular model. All versions of the 128GB iPad will be sold through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

Out of the blue Apple has dropped the news of a new 128GB iPad, which will retail for $799 for the WiFi model and $929 for the WiFi/Cellular model. Now the question is, what does this mean? Obviously this means more memory, but I think one way to look at this is – as CultofMac.com pointed out – this could be considered the ‘iPad Pro’. Most people really don’t need this much space on an iPad, not yet anyway. This iPad will be reserved generally for the person who uses the iPad for everything in their life, and really wants to move away from a computer completely. Mostly your business pro or your professional photographer would be attracted to this option. With more and more options coming into the market place, like the Surface Pro by Microsoft (which retails at $899 for a 64GB model, that actually only has 23GB of usable space), Apple made an aggressive proactive move to make one of the highest capacity tablets on the market.

This news has sparked an interesting debate around the Simply Mac offices, is Apple coming out with too much too soon? I stand on the side of no. The whole debate started with the release of the 4th generation iPad, that was announced along with the iPad Mini. It was released about 8 months after the 3rd gen, which was the fastest turn around time for almost any Apple product. The question is, is the shorter product cycle the new norm for Apple? I’m starting to believe the yearly product cycle that Apple has run on, with the iPhone and iPad, may be going by the wayside. With the increased competition out there, I would not be surprised to see Apple move to a 6 month product cycle to keep things fresh. That is still slower than many competitors  that come out with something new every 3 or 4 months.

The question was raised if they are also coming out with too many options. Apple really hasn’t increased their product base that much since they announced the original iPad, outside of the iPad Mini, it’s remained about the same. Outside of the iPod family, Apple offers the three versions of the iPhone (4, 4S, 5), three version of the iPad (iPad 2, Mini, Retina), three MacBooks (Air, Pro, Retina), and three desktops (iMac, Mini, Pro).  I believe the MacBook Pro is on its way out with the Retina family being introduced. Compared to the Sony and Samsung’s of the world, that’s not a lot.

The area where Apple has the most options in this product line up is in the iPad family, with all the different cellular and memory options. I think the options they are giving are great, especially when it comes to the cellular iPads – not every provider works well everywhere. So one provider may be a lot better in someones area than another provider. Also, Apple offers the iPad 2 as an affordable entry level option. I do believe the 16GB model in the iPad line will be going away eventually with the addition of the 128GB model. So as of now, specifically with the iPad, you can pick between:  16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB – you can also pick WiFi only or cellular options with Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint – and you can also pick the color, black or white. If you want the iPad in a small size, that’s where the Mini comes into play.

If Apple released something new every 3 or 4 months and kept adding more and more to the product line, I would understand what some people are concerned about. As of now it seems Apple’s line is finally maturing and rounding out.