MacBook Pro 2014 release date soon as Apple refreshes and discounts prices of old models

The upcoming release date of this year's MacBook Pro may come very soon as Apple slashed prices and refreshed the current models of the MacBook Pro line.

Apple decreased the starting price of the MacBook Pro line in its Apple Store. The regular 13-inch MacBook Pro without Retina display now costs $1,099, which is $100 less than its original price. The laptop packs 2.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive.

The 15-inch model with 2.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, 512GB of flash storage and dual graphics cards now costs $2,499 and is also $100 less than its original tag price.

This is not the first time that MacBook Pro received discounts. US retailers already gave out discounts to their consumers ahead of Apple.

Meanwhile, the company also updated the rest of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros with Retina display, which received a 200MHz processor speed bump. The Cupertino-based tech giant initially refreshed the MacBook Air laptops earlier.

On the other hand, the release date of the successors of the MacBook Pro was reported to be postponed later this year due to the delay on the release of Broadwell chips from Intel.

Apple will not be able to ship the latest versions of MacBook Pro and MacBook Air until late 2014 or early 2015 with Intel's 14-nanometer Broadwell chips. The chipsets in question faced numerous delays due to the persistent issues that Intel fixed. Latest rumors indicated that Intel's U series Broadwell chips destined for Apple's upcoming MacBooks may not ship until February next year.

The MacBook Pro 2014 is reportedly set to pack Intel Broadwell chips, a fanless design and a new trackpad. The new MacBook and 12-inch MacBook Air is in lieu of Intel's announcement of its new 14nm Core M Broadwell processor.