Apple cuts MacBook prices

Customers look at MacBook Pros, during the official opening of the largest Apple shop in southern Europe, at Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona July 28, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Albert Gea/Files

Apple cut the price on the base version of its 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop with "retina" display by US$200 (A$193) as it revamps its top-end laptops, weeks after the company reported a steep decline in Mac sales in the December quarter.

In Australia, the base version of the MacBook Pro with retina display will now be priced at $1649, and a new 2.6 GHz processor, 256 GB flash memory version for $1849.

Apple also lowered the price of its 13-inch MacBook Air laptop with 256 GB of flash memory to $1549,

The company upgraded its 15-inch MacBook Pro with a faster 2.4 GHz quad-core processor and the top-end 15-inch notebook with a new 2.7 GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of memory.

Investors have worried that Apple's iPad is cannibalising its Mac range, but CEO Tim Cook has brushed aside these concerns.

The company sold 4.1 million Macs in the December quarter, down 21 percent from a year earlier. 

Apple also missed Wall Street's revenue forecast for the third straight quarter in January after iPhone sales came in below expectations, fanning fears that its dominance of consumer electronics is slipping.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)