Getting yourself a MacBook for less than a thousand bucks definitely sounds like the sweetest deal you'll ever score on an Apple product. Analysts predicted that this new price point may soon become a reality due to the projected marketing strategy which will be implemented by the Cupertino-based company. Find out more about this price slashing revelation in our full article after the jump.

PiperJaffray analyst Greg Munster predicts that the iPhone may just be getting a new search feature, the styling of the Mac OS X's Spotlight function. The catch is that this may not be available until early next year.

That aside, Munster also made predictions for other Apple matters, such as the recent UK launch for the iPhone, and the new MacBook. Full details on Munster's predictions are available in the full article.

Word has been circulating around the Internet that Apple is finally preparing to launch a next gen video iPod that will feature a touch-screen panel similar to the one used in the iPhone within a year.

Longstanding rumors about a touch-screen iPod have been bolstered by a recent U.S. patent awarded to the Cupertino based company.

According to Apple Insider, DigiTimes has also added more fuel to the fire, citing "sources at upstream suppliers" that Taiwan-based Wintek will be supplying the touch panels. DigiTimes says that Wintek will "begin shipping capacitive touch screen panels in the second half of 2007".

Apple Insider also noted that during a private meeting last month at the Apple Town Hall, Apple CEO Steve Jobs mentioned that a division of the company was working hard on next gen iPods that would run an embedded version of Mac OS X.

This particular tidbit was picked up by Wall Street analysts, among them Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster. Munster wrote in a report to clients earlier this week that they "expect Apple to release high capacity iPods based on OS X sometime during or before Macworld '08 in January".

Investment banking firm PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster recently commented that it is very unlikely for Apple to showcase the iPhone at its upcoming event Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

In lieu of it, Munster added that the show will be highlighted by new MacBook Pros and quite possibly new iMacs. Munster's basis for this observation is Apple's update history for its products. According to the analyst, professional notebooks are updated every 182 days on the average.

The most recent generation of MacBook Pro was launched around 210 days ago. Likewise, an iMac update is also long overdue as the last time Apple had it was 257 days ago. The average release date for every generation is usually around 168 days.

While the above mentioned products are yet to be confirmed, Apple has promised in the past that a full-featured version of OSX 10.5 Leopard will be demonstrated and handed out at WWDC.

Yesterday's news about Best Buy starting to sell Macs again may just be the first in a number of Apple-related changes coming to the Best Buy stores scattered around the U.S.

MacNN reports that the deal, which will see Best Buy increasing the number of their retail locations stocking Macs to about 200 by this fall, may also mean new Apple-centric boutique layouts at Best Buy stores.

Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray believes that while the increase in Mac stocks at Best Buy retail stores will not affect Piper Jaffray's current outlook for Mac sales, the strengthening relationship between Apple and Best Buy will bring "higher visibility, including boutique-like Apple stores in some locations."

"We believe Apple's store within a store at Best Buy will be much different compared to the current pilot store rollout, which was a table with Apple products on it," said Munster in his research report. "The difference is we expect some (smaller number) of these 200 stores will have walled-off Apple stores, while others will have improved layouts."

"What is clear, you won't wander around Best Buy to shop for Apple," he continued. "A good way to think about Apple & Best Buy is the Coach or Chanel store within a store concept at Nordstrom."

Whoever came up with the idea for iPod and the Mac-Window hybrid ought to get a Christmas bonus the size of Rhode Island! Gene Munster, an analyst at Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray says Apple's Mac sales could reach 9 million in 2007. Okay, that's still a distant third to PC pushers HP and Dell. But ain't no chump change, either.

Munster credits the iPod for converting more consumers into Apple People "halo effect". If this halo effect keeps going on, the iPod may soon be canonized by the Vatican. The other thing going for Apple is its new line of Intel-powered Macs. Munster says Apple's Boot Camp software - the killer app that run Microsoft's Windows on the Mac - isn't hurting sales of its notebooks and desktops.

If the 9 million units (which is admittedly only guesswork based on market trends) fails to impress you, let us show you some very cold, very hard facts. Apple's fourth-quarter sales for its Mac line is already at 1.61 million. That's 1.61 million Macs sold within three months. If you're the stocks-betting type, we say put your money where Munster's mouth is - it's almost as sure as a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The iPod killer, the future-proof MP3 player, the cool-looking portable Hard Drive. The Zune's been called a lot of things (we'll omit what the iPod dudes have to say for now), and while we do like the functions that it's been churning out, and Bill Gate's exceeding expectations for his (other) little black box, we were beginning to wonder just how people took to it as compared to the iPod.

"I have never heard of the Zune," came the reply of one sales clerk when asked about the Zune, at least according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Munster had conducted a survey on at 40 major retails stores, and found in his results that only 8% of the sales clerks ever recommended the Zune, with 75% recommending the iPod for customers.

"In fact, some MP3 player salespeople had not even heard of the Zune, despite the fact that they sold it in their store," Munster also writes in his report. Ouch. As of Tuesday, the Zune's on the #22 spot for Amazon's most sold MP3 player, the 30-gigabyte ipod taking the #1 spot, the 1-gig iPod shuffle at #3, and the pink 4-gig Nano at #5.

And what of marketing for the Zune? "our checks show that Zune ads are being placed more selectively than iPod ads," Munster said, adding that the Zune "is off to a slow start; from sales perspective as well as the marketing perspective." Given the season's just starting up, we're going to have to see what lies in store for the Zune.

"Apple continues to dominate the digital music player and online music markets, despite new competitors constantly entering the market," or so says PiperJaffray's recent findings. Accordingly, Apple Computer conducts a bi-annual survey for around  six years now. That sounds like bordering on paranoia and with the sampling just comprised of 1,000 high school students, the computer company might not be getting the real picture.

Since we are here anyway, the research says that the iPod is taking much of the market share with 79%. Closest competition is Sony with a lowly 8% share. In the meantime, the study found out that almost 80% of the students are currently downloading music online, and majority of those use P2P music sharing networks.

"But of those students who use legal online music services, 91 percent said they use iTunes, which is up significantly from our spring 2006 survey," comments PiperJaffray's analyst Gene Munster. The middle market investment bank and institutional securities firm accordingly attached this growth from iTunes increasing content variety.

Apple maintains that winning the teenager sector is pivotal to the company's continued long term growth. Judging from the research firm's numbers, it seems that the Cupertino-based company will be enjoying this comfortable lead for quite some time.

At Apple's Word Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) last week, the developers of the Mac OS X, surveyed by PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster, were pretty unanimous in their observation that Apple's Intel transition is progressing optimally.

Munster said that all developers who had ported an application from PowerPC to Universal Binary reported that the process went easier than they had actually expected. Meanwhile, 15 out of 16 developers predict that there will be a greater number of Mac applications in the future because of the Intel transition.

A total of 90% of the developers also believe that the enhancement on Mac's ability to run the Windows operating system - which Munster believes will be integrated in the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard - will positively impact Mac application development.

If the Intel transition continues on its progressive path, it is without a doubt that it will not be long before Mac applications get an upgrade that consumers will definitely enjoy.

For this article, you're going to need large black plastic bags, a shovel, and something to cover the stench.

Why?

Because Steve Jobs just uncovered the dead. I'm talking about the elusive iPod phone. It's been talked about for so long. But now, Steve Jobs himself is supposedly so excited about it that he keeps talking about it. Imagine. Steve "Everything-Is-Top-Secret" Jobs, blabbing to people about an iPod phone? It sounds so unbelievable I almost spat out my coffee when I first found out about it.

Steve blabbing secrets! That right there makes me think this is either a rumor or a ruse, and my bet is it's a ruse. Apple's up to something, and this is all a smokescreen (like when Apple announced they'd never enter the sub-PC market and then went ahead and released the Mac mini only a few months later). Steve Jobs is an evil genius.

Still, Wall Street analysts (PiperJaffray, Bear Stearns, etc.) are saying an iPod phone is likely to happen. They cite their own reasons and proofs that Apple has, indeed, been hard at work on mobile phone technology. Unfortunately, chances are this news is going to turn stale and start to smell funny before any of us will get to see an iPod cell phone: analysts expect the phone to come out in the middle of next year, if not later.

What's holding up the process? According to some market analysts and Wall Street watchers, it's probably economics. Apple has to be careful because an iPod mobile phone might ruin sales of low-end iPods. This is because when technologies are merged, demand for low-end products tends to go down. For example, now that most mobile phones have cameras, nobody buys the cheap digital cameras, but people still buy the high-end ones. The same thing might happen to Apple's brand-new lower-end iPods and refurbished units.

Gene Munster, an analyst at PiperJaffray, said that Apple is probably better off concentrating on devices with one main feature instead of making devices (like an iPod phone) that have multiple functions. I'm not sure how serious a man named "Munster" can be, but we do know from past experience that Steve Jobs has a habit of pulling the plugs on a project even after it's far into its development. So even if Apple really is developing an iPod phone, it might never finish development.