I'm not sure what he's proposing is out of line. I suspect 1TB drives have come down a lot in the last year although I don't know exactly how much. Memory hasn't moved much so that's probably a difficult one to double without eating into margins while I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult for Apple to drop in a GT220 for what it cost them for a GT120 last year.
I'm figuring on ~$50 - 60USD for an HDD at most (quantity pricing). Margins on drives aren't 40% (to generate a retail drive price for comparitive purposes), which is why I don't think 1TB will be available as standard in the base models. It would be nice, but I won't expect it, so I still think it's more likely to continue to be an upgrade (though the additional cost should drop).
Also consider, if 1TB became standard in the base model, the only capacity options would be 1.5 and 2TB.
As per RAM, the newer parts don't all have the capability to run 1333MHz, so sticking with 1066MHz simplifies the parts bin. As the prices have come down, it will either allow them to obtain higher margins, or offer them the potential to pass some savings on to customers.
Graphics: Apple wants low power (can run off of the PCIe power with no additional power cables needed), and even the GT150 consumes 141W (according to nVidia's specifications). Since the slot can only provide 75W, that would be the upper limit, and the GT130 is at the max of this limit. They could chose to change here, but I don't expect this to happen. Keeping the power consumption to 75W or less, means a short list of candidates.
The big unknown is whether Apple has recovered enough of the tooling and design costs on the 2009 platform to pass some savings along in the form of lower prices on the 2010 models which will largely be a carry-over from last year. I'm expecting they can and will, based simply on other recent price cuts we've witness on some of their other products... which is why I can see a $300-$500 drop for comparable systems this year.
I'm leaning towards the idea of higher margins and lower costs will balance out into similar pricing as the '09 systems. Value could be added however, by such things as a slight increase in clock speed (i.e 2.8GHz rather than 2.66GHz for the same budget).
What you also have to keep in mind, is the sales quantity of the MP's aren't at the levels the other products are (namely the device market), and will work against price drops. The economy of scale just isn't there comparitively speaking.
I'm hopeful, but I've tempered my hopes with recent history directly related to the MP's (specifically the '07's in terms of what was offered that was different from the '06's, and the '09's in terms of pricing), not other products.
could hog on.
