Apple will lower their prices, probably in the summer, everyone will say how wonderful it is because we would have forgotten about the price rise recently
Apple are proud of their margins and price premium. It is a large part of their positioning. Advertising concentrates on quality, reinforcing the idea that "you get what you pay for". This is as opposed to, say, a $15000 Rolex, which has no benefit over a $150 Casio other than an "I am rich" statement (the App that perfectly displayed this concept).
So they will do everything to avoid lowering prices in response to economic conditions. Doing so says "yeah ok we admit we made the whole thing up, we don't need the premium for R&D or better materials, it's just a dell with a different label", thereby destroying the market positioning.
The bold pricing of the new Mac mini during the recession (someone made the comment on first page) tells us there is no intention to do this. And it would have been evident internally by then that sales were down. They might "round down" or roll back some prices but I seriously doubt it.
If they want to respond to these market conditions, other than launch a new product, the best way is to create seeming "loopholes" in the pricing. Oh it seems Apple overlooked that if you combine this offer with this discount you can get an iMac for $300 less. Or "educational" pricing restrictions can be somewhat relaxed. Bundling deals, combined with some other limited time offers etc etc. If people think the discounts are either unintentional, or that they are getting a special discount off the "normal" price, but the "normal" price is still considered real, then the market positioning will be maintained. Obviously this game will wear thin eventually, but it could be good for at least 12 months while $new_insanely_great product is readied.
Finally, there is zero chance that any tablet or netbook will be competitively priced in that space. Firstly, there is the above reason (brand position). Secondly, if it's any good it will be in demand, so why make it cheap? Finally, there is the inevitable cannibalizing of macbook, MBA or even touch/phone sales. This last point can be reduced by using an iPhone like OS, but at the cost of significant development, and potentially yet another App store, which would be a no no. With the other news going on, it sounds more like they should concentrate on beefing up the iPhone/touch. More power, external (slide in?) monitors, keyboards, projectors etc might offer a differentiated solution rather than the same old crappy underpowered netbooks running desktop OSes. Serious people will still end up with an MB[A|P].
