I confess: I wasn’t excited going into today’s Apple announcement… for a slew of reasons actually:

- larger macro issues (economy, election) are far more serious and interesting

- the Apple announcements seem to be available on Techmeme long before Jobs takes the stage (I’ve called it Gadgetmeme before)

- Apple hasn’t wowed me with anything game-changing other than the iPhone App Directory (and we knew that was coming). In fact, ever announcement seems to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

And with the ‘major’ announcements now past, I actually found the rumors juicier than the result – and the more interesting reading is what the economy’s impact on Apple’s enhanced line will be: will the new $999 entry point benefit suddenly-cost-conscious buyers (as UBS and PiperJaffy ponder) – or will they be less inclined to purchase evolutionary and still-comparatively-expensive laptops (as I contend).

Introducing the all-new MacBook and MacBook Pro. New design. New features. New technologies. All engineered to standards that don’t even exist yet:

Precision aluminum unibody enclosure.
Machined from solid aluminum, the new MacBook and MacBook Pro are thinner, greener, and more stunning than ever.

Ultrathin LED-backlit display.
With seamless glass and instant full screen brightness, everything you see is flat-out spectacular.

Advanced NVIDIA graphics processing.
NVIDIA delivers faster, more powerful graphics performance to the new MacBook and MacBook Pro.

All-new, smooth glass Multi-Touch trackpad.
The spacious new Multi-Touch trackpad gives you even more room for clicking and for Multi-Touch gestures.

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