The Apple event that was announced last week took place today, and while some of the rumors proved to be true, the most important one did not surface.

The rumored new cases turned out to be real.  Some of the MacBooks and all of the MacBook Pros received a new aluminum case that makes these the most environmentally friendly things around.  The screens are now all shiny glass and the trackpad has been enlarged and is now a glass multitouch interface.

What was missing was the rumored $800 entry level computer.  Instead we got a $999 update to the standard plasticy MacBook, if you want the new cases with all the bells and whistles, you won’t be getting away for anything under $1,299.  Once again I feel as though Apple has missed the mark with this release.

While Apple has taken a sizable chunk out of Microsoft’s share of the market, they would be even further ahead if their price points weren’t so off putting.  You can walk into Walmart lately and pick up a laptop for $400 to $500 on sale, and, true, it won’t be the best thing out there, but your average consumer doesn’t realize that.  My current laptop is a Dell Vostro 1500, and I am very, very happy with it, I added some upgrades to it and I still came out for cheaper than the $1,299 for the cheapest iteration of the shiny new Mac laptops.

The problem for me is that I do want to switch to Macs, I am fed up with all of the problems I have with PCs, but I simply can not make the change over work out on a budget sheet.  If I was to switch just my laptop usage, I would be looking at a minimum price of $1,999 for the cheapest MacBook Pro, and I could get two PC laptops for that.  The math simply doesn’t work out for a small business company such as ours, or even on the salary I earn from writing.

You can read all about the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros on the official site.  The MacBook Air also received some upgrades today, but the pricing of the Air just makes my head hurt.  Maybe next year we’ll get a Mac every one can afford, but I have about lost hope.