This morning Apple (AAPL) refreshed its desktop line, announcing a new Nehalem-based Mac Pro, a more robust Mac mini and four new iMacs, among them, three with 24-inch screens. All three lines boast fundamental enhancements, but also more affordable prices–a feature Apple touted in its marketing materials the way it would a new technology. Consider this pull quote from Apple COO Tim Cook: “Our flagship 24-inch iMac with twice the memory and twice the storage is now available for just $1,499. The Mac mini is not only our most affordable Mac, it’s also the world’s most energy efficient desktop computer.” And this one from Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing: “The new Mac Pro is a significant upgrade and starts at $300 less than before.”

An interesting change from Apple’s standard marketing language, which typically holds its new machines up as “the most incredible desktop computer we’ve ever made” or “our fastest, biggest and brightest” or “the workstation Mac users have been dreaming about.”

These days, Apple’s new Macs are not simply faster and shinier, they’re a bargain as well. “Insanely great!” has become “insanely affordable!” Anyway, on to the specs.

The new Mac Pro is priced at $2,499 for the quad-core version and at $3,299 for the eight-core version, with Nehalem Xeon processors running at 2.93GHz. All feature an updated system architecture that Apple says delivers twice the performance of the previous model.

The new iMac line starts with the 20-inch iMac for $1,199 with a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 memory, a 320GB Serial ATA hard drive and Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics. Its 24-inch brethren features a 1920-by-1200-pixel widescreen display that offers 30 percent more screen real estate than the 20-inch model. It offers up to a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and starts at $1,499–the same price as the previous generation 20-inch model.

The new Mac Mini has been outfitted with the same Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics as Apple’s new MacBooks, something the company says will improve its graphics performance as much as fivefold. Available in two models that start at $599, the mini features a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz memory, up to 320GB Serial ATA hard drive, five (!) USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800 and a SuperDrive.

Also receiving a refresh today: Apple’s Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme, which now offer a “guest networking” feature that allows users to create a separate Wi-Fi network just for their friends and supports for simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi. “For maximum range and compatibility, Time Capsule works simultaneously on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, allowing all the devices on the network to use the most efficient band automatically,” Apple explains. “And Time Capsule uses the latest 802.11n wireless technology so you can enjoy up to five times the performance and up to twice the range of 802.11g wireless networks.”

UPDATE: Hardmac is now claiming these new machines could be released as soon as tomorrow.

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• A Post-Macworld Apple Event? History Would Seem to Suggest So

A third of all consumers (33 percent) who said that they were planning on buying a laptop in the next three months intend to buy one of Apple’s MacBooks, and nearly a third of those in the market for a desktop (27 percent) plan to purchase one of its Mac Pros, according to new data from ChangeWave. This, despite an ugly dip in spending that threatens to turn the upcoming holidays into lean ones for all. A solid majority, 59 percent of ChangeWave study respondents, say they will spend less in the next 90 days despite the holidays. Just 10 percent say they will spend more. “There’s been a massive breakdown in consumer spending plans going forward,” said ChangeWave research director Paul Carton. “We’ve never seen anything like it. It’s going to be a very tough holiday season.”

Tougher for some than others, though. Well, one other: Apple (AAPL). “We do see Apple’s numbers looking better going forward, over the next 90 days,” said Carton. “Apple will clearly come out of this as the biggest tree in the forest. They’ll be in extraordinary shape compared to everyone else when things improve. I don’t think that Apple can escape the enormity of this downturn in the short run, but in the big picture, I think [these numbers] are wonderful news for Apple. It’s not easy to increase market share in one of the worst spending environments in years.”

No, it’s not. Though Apple’s steady and significant growth suggests otherwise. As Apple COO Tim Cook noted at the company’s October notebook event, “If you look at the history, the Mac has outgrown the market for the last 14 of 15 quarters.”

This morning Apple announced upgrades to its Mac Pro desktops and Xserve servers. Powering the new machines: one or two of the new quad-core 45 nanometer Penryn-family processors Intel announced at CES yesterday. “The new Mac Pro is the fastest Mac we’ve ever made,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of product marketing. Interestingly, the company’s new Xserve is, according to the press release, Apple’s “most powerful server ever.”

Odd that Apple would announce some of its fastest and most powerful machines the week before Macworld San Francisco. Perhaps Jobs wanted to steal a little bit of buzz from CES, as he did last year with the announcement of the iPhone. In any event, the debut of these new products would seem to make it more likely that Apple will indeed announce updated MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops next week.