How do Apple refresh timelines work?

Hey all, I am currently in the market for an Macbook Pro Retina 15 and was about to pull the trigger on a new base model for $2000 with my student discount until I started reading about a potential Haswell/June refresh during WWDC this year.

How do Apple refreshes work generally? Once a product line has been refreshed, does the base price remain the same as the product it replaced? For example, would my price for a refreshed base model rMBP 15 remain at $2000 or does Apple change pricing schemes with the refreshes?

Also, how much of a delay is there usually between Apple announcing a refresh and the product actually being available/shipped out to consumers?

I am really lost as to wait or just purchase now and potentially regret it big time if there is a refresh a couple weeks down the road.

 

it varies, they can paper launch (you can order after sometime) or just actually launch the product (you can order right after the launch).

and there is a refresh in the coming weeks

 

For the last couple years, the products have been upgraded, but the pricing has remained relatively consistent. The $2199 MacBook Pro in 2010 was $2199 when the 2011 models launched and so on. That's not to say there won't be any changes for the newest products, but it's probably safe to say that any adjustments will be incremental.

Many times, product availability starts the day it is announced. At the same time, there's the initial wave of demand that will quickly evaporate initial supplies. If you're not extremely quick to pull the trigger, you could end up waiting several weeks for an order to be filled.

 

Note that Apple just did a minor refresh on the Retinas in February 2013. Yeah, three months ago. So keep that in mind while the crystal ball is guessing whether they will do *another* refresh right away.