You are right, the surprisingly little differences between the 12" IBook and PowerBook right now. Unless you compare prices in which case you can have the very afordable IBook, or the overly expensive powerBook.
Yes the PowerBook comes with a slightly faster CPU, but if your not going to be doing a huge amount of graphics work (or other CPU intensive work) then this isn't really an issue! Max out the RAM the IBook should easily be compotition for the PowerBook IMO.
The Superdrive is the only option not available for the 12" IBook yet. And even then it shouldn't be counted since it doesn't come as standard on the any of the PowerBooks other than the massive 17" model!
Argumably we could add Mini-DVI out here but then there are ways of doing this on the IBook; only this would void your warrenty! Not something i would recomend.
Adding the BTO to your IBook costs you nearly nothing and you can always add the Airport Extreme card later if you want to spread the cost out a bit. If not, just get it at the same time. But definatly get the BTO since you can't add it later!
So, finally, you've added these things and put a good amount of RAM in there and the IBook will still probably cost less than the PowerBook! What is the real reason for getting the PowerBook!
256MB DDR266 SDRAM built-in
60GB Ultra ATA drive
Combo drive (DVD/CD-R)
AirPort Extreme Card
Bluetooth Module
Keyboard/Mac OS X - U.S. English
12-inch TFT XGA display
1GHz PowerPC G4
ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 w/ 32MB DDR video memory
Subtotal $1,323.00
VS
256MB DDR333 (256MB built-in)
60GB Ultra ATA drive @ 4200rpm
Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
AirPort Extreme Card
Bluetooth Module
Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
1.33GHz PowerPC G4
NVIDIA GeForce FX GO 5200 with 64MB DDR Video Memory
12.1-inch TFT Display
Subtotal $1,599.00
Think that says it all
. My $0.2 anyway,
Mark.