Apple Acknowledges 15" PowerBook Spots

zachlipton writes "Computerworld is running an interesting interview with Dave Russell, director of product marketing for portables and wireless at Apple. Russell comments on the white spot issues that have plagued the new 15" PowerBooks (Apple has been very responsive about fixing mine at least) and he has this to say about a G5 PowerBook: 'We certainly want to do that, but it's going to be a while.' Russell also comments on a lot of other ideas related to the PowerBook and iBook lines."

At least

[blackmonday]

At least he didn't say the new powerbook had the lovely dalmatian finish of the early iMac.

And, don't expect anyone to say the G5 powerbook is coming soon. Nobody would buy the current models if that was remotely the case.

Re: "G5 PowerBooks coming soon..."

[0x69]

Two independent lines of logic strongly suggest that the G5 PowerBook ain't coming any time soon:

- Apple just updated the PowerBooks. History says that they are very unlikely to update 'em again quick. (See MacRumor.com's Buyer's Guide page for dates of past revisions.)

- There is no G5 Xserve yet. If Apple can't get a G5 working within the Xserve's size/power/noise limits (with sales doubtless in the pits as folks wait for G5), then they're likely a *long* way from doing G5 within the PowerBook's (far tighter) limits.

Re:Xserve (-1, Off-topic)

[Alan Partridge]

Money? If you take a look at the G5, you'll see that its form factor is actually rather peculiar for a desktop - presumably Apple could engineer a 3U Xserve using the existing G5 tower in a month or two, but to do a 1U version is gonna mean a much bigger (and therefore more Xpensive) engineering effort.

The power dissipation of the PPC 970 is really nothing special, a laptop version is definitely feasible, though I'd imagine they'll wait for the 90nm version until they go for it, especially with the MPC 7457 proving itself such a good mobile chip.

Re: G5 Xserve

[0x69]

Apple could sell a *lot* of G5 Xserves, and (looking at G4 Xserve prices) any undercutting of G5 PowerMac sales would only *increase* Apple's profits. A recent "Page 2" rumor on MacRumors.com put the G5 Xserve 4 to 5 months out - suggesting that 970's built on the new 90nm process are required.

Why aren't they shipping already? A few ideas:

- Legal constraint from IBM? Seems unlikely - IBM's bottom line is supposedly hurting for lack of business to keep their pricy new 970 fab busy. Frustrated wanna-be G5 Xserver customers are unlikely to buy all-IBM stuff instead - racks powered by Intel (IBM's arch-enemy) are probably more likely.

- Too damn hot? Current G5's are much hotter then Xserve's current G4's. Having taken a financial bath on their noisy G4 PowerMac, Apple may have concluded that "1U size", "current G5 chips", and "noise level acceptable to customers" is an impossible combo. If Steve vetoed a >1U size, they'd just have to wait for cooler-running G5's from IBM. But Dell is busy selling dual 3.2GHz Xeon 1U servers, and Xeons supposedly run much hotter than G5's. Is Apple's hot-air-blowing technology actually too sucky to keep up with Dell?

- R&D brain bottleneck? Apple's hard-core chipset/motherboard design gurus may be stretched thin by too many current projects. Pointy-Haired Bonehead decisions may have set them way back. Intel may have lured key brains away. Quality "the hard parts" engineers aren't a "find, hire, & get productive overnight" item that Apple could fix the problem quickly - *especially* if Steve PHB'ed things to begin with.

Short of a Darwin-class bonehead decision or two, i don't buy "product cycle" reasons. They've refreshed the Xserve about this fast in the past, and every day of delay is costing $$$ in lost profits.