Apple cuts price of 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina, updates processors

Apple is reducing prices for its 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display laptops while also upgrading their processors, just a few months after releasing the laptop models.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina, as it is commonly referred to, will now sell for $1,499 and $1,699 -- down from $1,699 and $1,999. The higher-end model will now also possess a 2.6GHz quad-core processor, up from a 2.5GHz quad-core processor.

Apple also improved the processors for its 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina laptops. Its $2,199 model now has a 2.4GHz quad-core processor, up from 2.3GHz quad-core, and the $2,799 model now has a 2.7GHz quad-core processor and 16 gigabytes of RAM, up from a 2.6GHz quad-core and 8 GB of RAM.

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The Cupertino company also took $100 off of its most expensive MacBook Air laptop. It will now sell the 13-inch 256GB MacBook Air starting at $1,399.

Apple said the changes were effective immediately.

Although the 13-inch MacBook Retina was released in October, the company presumably is making the price cuts to boost sales. The price drops come just three weeks after Apple revealed Mac sales had fallen in the first quarter from 5.2 million in 2012 to 4.1 million in 2013.

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