New MacBook Pros Appearing in Retail Inventory?

Last week, we'd heard an unconfirmed report that three new MacBook Pro models had appeared in Best Buy's inventory tracking system. Some inventory screenshots (1, 2) we received today appear to confirm this earlier report, showing off the upcoming $1999 price point MacBook Pro (name cut off in image).

Information found in early inventory tracking systems, however, is difficult to rely on, as many of the details may be "best guess" placeholders only. For what its worth, these new SKUs come with the exact same price points as current MacBook Pros ($1999, $2499, $2799) and show an in-stock date of February 10th, 2008.

This date adds to a laundry list of other possible dates (Feb 5th, Feb 12th, Mar 17th) that have been trickling in on our Page 2. Unfortunately, this new date is likely an estimate, but does reflect expectations of an imminent MacBook Pro release.

Though we aren't familiar with the workings of Best Buy's inventory system, we presume they have some reason to believe that the systems are coming. In contrast, Amazon notoriously posted placeholders for iWork '07 and iLife '07 ahead of Macworld Expo based purely on speculation. Apple, of course, skipped iWork '07 and iLife '07 versions and went straight to '08 versions eight months later.

While the new MacBook Pros will likely incorporate only modest updates (Penryn and Multi-Touch), with their imminent release, its hard to justify the purchase of the current 8 month old models.