CUPERTINO, California (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Tuesday cut the price on its entry-level notebook computer to $999 in a move expected to attract budget-minded buyers at a time when recession fears loom over the global economy.
APPLE (AAPL.NQ)also showed off a new line of aluminum MacBook notebooks starting at $1,299.
Shares of Apple, which have risen about 20 percent since the company last week invited media to a notebook event, fell 5 percent in heavy trade on the Nasdaq to $104.64. Many analysts had expected the entry-level notebook price to fall to $899.
"Bad for the stock today, good for the stock over the next couple of months," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who said that the new machines looked good even if the new entry-level price was not as low as Wall Street had hoped.
The $999 price will be for an updated model of its white-body notebooks. The new aluminum machines will use Nvidia Corp graphics and Intel Corp processors.
When asked if Apple would get into the market for small 'netbook' notebook computers, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said, "It's a nascent market" and that Apple would see how it went.
