Macworld to Bring Updates to Laptop Lines?

An anonymous reader writes "Reuters is reporting on the breathless anticipation that leads up to Macworld every year. Many analysts are hedging their bets that this year will bring a long overdue update to the Mac laptop family. From the article: 'We think the iBook, PowerBook, Mac Mini, and potentially Xserve are areas that are going to move to Intel first,' said Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research."

Depends

[liangzai]

If the warehouses are emptied out of G4 PowerBooks, they might think now is a good time cramming out a first version of an Intel based PowerBook. Otherwise, they are probably going to wait a little bit longer to avoid unnecessary losses (or get rid of the stocked up stuff for a great discount).

Two problems: Apple needs to upgrade its aging portfolio of laptops, but at the same time they can't risk introducing a flawed first Intel model; it's gotta be more or less perfect, and it's gotta be so much better than a G4 in almost every regard.

I will definitely buy one as soon as I hear the specs and reviews are good. Otherwise, I will most definitely postpone for a while, and get on with my current G4 PB.

Doutful on X86 Xserves (for a while)

[csoto]

First, they don't move that platform very quickly. Secondly, their real cluster sales go towards SciViz, which have a particular fondness for the G5 platform.

What a bunch of psychics

[SensitiveMale]

considering Steve Jobs said the laptops and the mac mini were to be converted to Intel first.

My predictions...

[doormat]

iBook (all with 13.3" widescreen display and integrated graphics - 945GM MCH)
$799: Intel Centrino Solo 1.66Ghz
$999: Intel Centrino Duo 1.66Ghz
$1199: Intel Centrino Duo 1.83GHz

Mini
$499: Intel Centrino Duo LV 1.5Ghz
$599: Intel Centrino Duo LV 1.66Ghz
$699: Intel Centrino Duo LV 1.66Ghz (but with included DVD+DL burner, bluetooth, etc)

Plus the MacTV annoucement (42" and 50" Plasmas with Minis built in), and the new 1GB shuffle replacement (possibly the 1GB Nano).

Re:Here's hoping...

[Roydd McWilson]

Sure, because they already have a $100 iPod... the iPod Scuffle (or wuz it Snuffle?). Sure, the user interface ain't too darn expressive, but it's an iPod sho'nuff.

Re:Waiting for the big dissapointment...

[burris]

Apple was planning to introduce intel Macs at this Macworld all along. They just said it would be "a year and a half" (i.e. Macworld 2007) to avoid the so-called "Osbourne Effect." People are supposed to think "Well, I really can't wait another year, so I'll buy a new computer now."

Re:xserves...hahahaha

[Roydd McWilson]

I don't know, I think throwing an Intel board into an XServe enclosure and bundling the latest stable build of OS X 86 (plus diligent QA, of course) isn't too bad as a stopgap if they're not ready for it in the other products. After all, historically Mac OS X Server was the first version of Mac OS X released. My reasoning is that servers aren't Apple's primary market, so the inevitable transitioning kinks won't be in the spotlight, and many of the XServes they do have depolyed are for applications like HPC where they're used to bleeding edge hardware and software. The other thing is that servers don't need to run the 3rd party desktop applications like Adobe's stuff; it's mostly standard Unix daemons and custom software.

Re:Small, but no smaller.

[laffer1]

I agree completely. Increase battery capacity. Not with 2 batteries, but one bigger battery. The weight of two would be too much. Just something to get an extra hour out of it.

Another thing apple could do is starting shipping with either larger or faster notebook hard drives. 7200 rpm drives are out and i think a bump for the ibook and powerbook would really make newer macs fly. Apple pushes iDVD and iMovie but doesn't give you the hard drive for it.

Re:No G4 laptops or desktops - that is my predicti

[timeOday]

Boy it would be disappointing if they're still just G4 models.

Assuming they're Intel-based (which is now in doubt), my question is whether there will be any barriers to running Linux and Windows. I'm intrigued by OSX, but I can't shift my work environment over all at once. Too disruptive. So if I could get a single laptop running OSX, Linux, and Windows, then maybe transition gradually to OSX depending on how I find it, that would be great.

Come on Jobs, give us a Yonah-based Powerbook I can triple boot!

Okay people

[kahrytan]

Some people are just clueless. I hate it when people try to predict what they will do next. Apple is tight liped on everything they do. They do what they want. This is why I do not pay attention to ANY rumors about Apple on the internet.

Re:Here's hoping...

[Coryoth]

My money is on the Apple Tablet being unveiled. ... but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

What I would like to see is something like a G5 iMac with wireless keyboard and mouse and a touch screen (and, I guess, some sort of handwriting recognition) as the "Apple Tablet". Most of the time it can sit on it's stand charging and being an ordinary desktop machine, but you can pick it up and carry it to the couch to read, watch a movie or do other less keyboard intensive tasks (anything that requires only occasional notes/typing, like annotating/editing a document instead of writing it). In that sense you're not buying a "tablet", you're just buying an ordinary iMac... it just happens to have the benefits of a tablet when you want it.

Jedidiah.

Re:Will the shrine do HDMI?

[stefanlasiewski]

If Apple was going to introduce a PVR/PC, it seems like they would have introduced it before Christmas. American Consumers spent billions of dollars on Televisions, DVDs and other multimedia devices this year. If Apple released a good PVR on say, the Mac Mini, I would have seriously considered one.

As is, I had trouble finding any Multimedia/PVR PCs for less then $1200, and most of them still seemed pretty buggy.

Re:Earth shattering announcement....

[NutscrapeSucks]

Here's list of the software that Apple "acquired", rather than creating in-house:

+ Mac OS X
+ iTunes
+ FairPlay DRM
+ Final Cut Pro / iMovie
+ iDVD
+ Logic
+ Shake
+ GarageBand
+ AppleWorks
+ FileMaker

Hey, just like Microsoft!

Re:Dual boot laptop

[Slashcrap]

We have less games but we also have less crap games as a result. Next time you troll make sure you try a little harder.

Are you going to apologise to shut_up_man for that? Because any normal person can see that wasn't a troll. He was saying that Mac laptops don't meet his requirements at the moment but it looks like they will in future, so he may well buy one. That's all he said.

The trouble is you seem to be so blinded by love for your platform of choice that you're prepared to insult people that dosn't yet own one, but would like to. To me that seems pathetic, incredibly immature and totally counter-productive.

In summary, you are the main reason that myself and many others will never own a Mac. I bow before your advocacy skills.

One of the other reasons is that this post will be marked as flamebait, while your post which actually does insult somebody for no reason at all will get modded +5 Interesting. I really can't understand how Apple have failed to increase their market share with advocates like you lot on their side.

Re:Dual boot laptop

[Anonymous Coward]

You're forgetting that all of these games on the Mac are ports, and therefore, suck. UT2004 is a good example; the game has been out for over a year and it's only just this past month that they release an update that makes the game playable... and even then it is at best a pale imitation of the version on Windows.

It isn't even clear that moving to Intel will address this. A lot of developers are still only writing for DirectX. Probably the best we have to look forward to are better drivers from NVidia/ATI for Mac, which could improve gameplay of the existing titles (that is, assuming Apple now starts offering current GPUs in their systems.)

And I have to laugh when I hear about Apple trying to take over the living room. Games are going to be everything... the Xbox 360 is going to play Godzilla to Front Row's Bambi and it isn't going to be pretty.

This time next year the market will have figured this out. I predict AAPL will be selling at $20.

Re:My predictions...

[dr.badass]

iBook (all with 13.3" widescreen display and integrated graphics - 945GM MCH)

I dobut you'll see any Apple system with Intel's graphics. They've put a lot of energy into Core Image, which requires programmable pixel shaders, and if I remember correctly, Intel's pixel shader support is laughable, with hardly any hardware accelleration. Given that current iBooks do support Core Image, it would be a step backwards. (This, and laughable graphics performance in general.) Not completely impossible, but unlikely.

Also, the main reason to use Intel's graphics support would be to cash in on "Centrino" marketing. I don't think Apple needs or wants to overrun their very strong brands (iBook, PowerBook) with Intel's. The same reason I wouldn't expect to see an "Intel Inside" sticker.

Mini $499: Intel Centrino Duo LV 1.5Ghz

If it's going to be plugged into a wall, there's no reason for the low-voltage version of the chip. The current Mini form factor has plenty of room to disperse the heat of the normal version. I would expect to see the LV version in some kind of ultraportable, if anything.