Hey, great! Let's drop the price but let's not mention the quality problems with the first batch of 23" HD displays! And why not? Those silly early adopters that paid a full 2 grand obviously deserve to get displays with serious color malfunctions, uneven backlighting, washed out edges, and barely any help from a company that continues to deny these problems exist.

As you can see, I'm a bitter early adopter. But trust me on this one: no more.

This can only mean one thing: A 17" (probably widescreen) model just around the corner, to nicely complement the headless iMac!

This developments adds a lot of credibility to the rumors of a headless low-end desktop Mac. Dropping the price on the existing monitors will make it easier to put together a system, and could even suggest that a 17" will be put back into the line, at a lower price point. All good news!

and in Europe prices are lowered on several other products as well! The weak dollar is finally paying off. Let the export begin!

I doubt that Apple is targeting $1000+ monitors to users who would buy a $500 computer. This announcement and a possible "headless iMac" are two entirely separate issues.

By the way, there already is a Mac for users that want an entry-level Mac and 17" or 20" LCD. It's called the iMac.

So, there really are people who are only going to spend $499 on a computer, but are willing to spend $1000 on a monitor? Yeah, I seriously doubt that these price drops have anything to do the headless imac rumor. More likely, these price drops give a now accurate price value to the monitors. Considering many competitors were offering far cheaper similar displays with more features (S-Video, Component, Tuner etc.), the price drop is more likely a response from Apple trying to remain competive with those who want a matching display, but didn't like the idea of paying an extra wad of cash for it.

Ya think Dell offering their new UltraSharp 2005FPW 20.1-inch Wide Aspect Flat Panel LCD Monitor with Height Adjustable Stand for $674.10 had anything to do with it, do you?

http://tinyurl.com/6999d
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Steve

Even the Powerbook prices went down. By $200 here in Canada.

Not necessarily. More likely, the same forces that drove down the price of the Dell screen are also driving down the costs of Apple's screens (namely, falling LCD prices).

I don't care what it is, I hate it when something I buy suddenly becomes less expensive than it was when I bought it...

By the way my 23" which I bought in August functions perfectly. No strange colors, even back lighting and it is quite stable between calibrations. As in recalibrating it has just about no visible effect.