Flash Based Apple Laptops... Again

[MacRumors]

Reuters reports on recent predictions made by Analyst Shaw Wu.

Wu revivies rumors that Apple will be incoporating Flash memory into upcoming notebook computers.

The maker of the popular iPod music player and Macintosh computers hopes to introduce so-called flash memory in small computers known as subnotebooks in the second half of 2007

Advantages of the use of Flash memory would be longer battery lives and shorter startup times. According to Wu, Apple is waiting for flash memory prices to decline but are otherwise ready to launch.

Rumors of an upcoming flash based subnotebook have been circulating for months. Another analyst (Benjamin Reitzes) mentioned this possibility back in June 2006.

[balamw]

In possibly related news. Samsung is reportedly shipping hybrid HDDs with flash to OEMs http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2101571,00.asp The flash is mainly seen as a write cache.

B

[Stridder44]

Ill believe it when I see it.

[xenotaku]

I'm iffy about this. It seems like it has the potential to be a weak powered machine, small flash drive (32gigs), and a hefty price tag.

However, it somehow they get 100gigs of flash memory and the power of current macbook pros...all in a small package...now that would be awesome.

[lorductape]

i'm getting so fed up of all these flash based rumors, that the announcement is going to come, and i'll see the words "flash based" in the title somewhere, and i just won't read it

[Maccus Aurelius]

This will eventually happen, and it could even take the form of flash hybrid HDD's. That alone would boost performance and boot time. Eventually laptops will move on to solid state drives. Rotating media will eventually be defunct, but not until it's one day successor is cheaper per gig of capacity and provide similar, equal or better capacity overall. So long as one can't buy a 100-200GB SSD drive for their laptop without spending a ludicrous amount of money rotating media will remain to fill that gap.

Flash is getting cheaper, and it probably won't take that long until they reach the practicality levels of the current standard and offer decent prices. The benefits of this kind of technology is not something that'll be passed over just to hold onto our spinning platters. I'll be buying an all flash macbook pro as soon as the price is right

[sergeantmudd]

I wonder what percent of the flash market Apple buys.

[mtrctyjoe]

I just wonder how they will price these? Between the lowend Macbook $1099 and the iPhone? Maybe $899ish, but this seems to high?

I just don't see it fitting in anywhere.....

[iMikeT]

More and more rumors about a sub-notebook... Isn't this where the iPhone comes in?

[hd78]

Originally Posted by mtrctyjoe

I just wonder how they will price these? Between the lowend Macbook $1099 and the iPhone? Maybe $899ish, but this seems to high?

I just don't see it fitting in anywhere.....

I don't think it will be cheap. It may be smaller in size, but it wont be smaller in price since it has better/more expensive technology

[mtrctyjoe]

Maybe these will be a WiFi Controler for your Mac? Like a remote control with a screen to allow you access to everything on your MAC from anywhere on the network, with some reduced functionality when off of a network? That could be sweet... but I still can not figure out the pricing.

[hd78]

12" MacBook Pro with flash HDD would be nice.

[koobcamuk]

Originally Posted by Maccus Aurelius

This will eventually happen, and it could even take the form of flash hybrid HDD's. That alone would boost performance and boot time. Eventually laptops will move on to solid state drives. Rotating media will eventually be defunct, but not until it's one day successor is cheaper per gig of capacity and provide similar, equal or better capacity overall. So long as one can't buy a 100-200GB SSD drive for their laptop without spending a ludicrous amount of money rotating media will remain to fill that gap.

Flash is getting cheaper, and it probably won't take that long until they reach the practicality levels of the current standard and offer decent prices. The benefits of this kind of technology is not something that'll be passed over just to hold onto our spinning platters. I'll be buying an all flash macbook pro as soon as the price is right

Agreed - but remember DVDs are not cheaper than tapes but people still buy them... I think if the HD is so fast due to flash - people will buy it and use external firewire/usb 500GB HDD to store media and the like. Even a firewire portable drive of 120GB is 'cheapish'.

[Maccus Aurelius]

Pricing isn't exactly everything. People who need to do pro work but have a mobile workstation will not buy a macbook or sub-notebook. The hardware limitations and the sheer size will turn them away. A subnotebook sounds terribly expensive too. All of the itzy bitzy notebooks I've seen were priced higher than a midrange Macbook Pro, yet didn't provide as much hardware capability. You pay dearly for that nice lilliputian computer, and don't expect Apple to build one and suddenly sell it cheaper than any macbook.

[mattscott306]

I think we'll see a flash based vPod before we see one of these babies. JMO

[mtrctyjoe]

Originally Posted by hd78

12" MacBook Pro with flash HDD would be nice.

That would mak for a lot of flash memory $$$$$$$$ to put it in the Pro catagory!

[Maccus Aurelius]

Originally Posted by koobcamuk

Agreed - but remember DVDs are not cheaper than tapes but people still buy them... I think if the HD is so fast due to flash - people will buy it and use external firewire/usb 500GB HDD to store media and the like. Even a firewire portable drive of 120GB is 'cheapish'.

But with DVD's, the benefits compared to the initial costs are much much greater. VHS has a much shorter lifespan, has poorer quality and is just a far bulkier form of media storage. At the same time, DVD's are far more versatile, since DVD-R's can be used as storage media for portable computer systems. SSD's, as far as I can tell, won't actually give you a better experience beyond speed, but the current trade offs are not worth mass adoption. With DVD's, the extra cost was and is a small price to pay for a superior product.

With SSD's, the benefits to the cost are not really on the mark yet. Sure you get great performance, but the storage limitations will take you right back to the computers of yesteryear that only had a few GB for you to play around with, while your high bit rate movies, processor and storage hungry applications and big music and image libraries consume what little space you're given for the high price.

[KindredMAC]

Maybe the Flash based media will make it into the much anticipated PowerBook G5's!

[Maccus Aurelius]

Now, what I'd love to see are high capacity flash based network drives with very long life spans. I have no qualms with an inexpensive rotating drive if it's constantly being backed up by a solid device that keeps a record of all my data.

[Peace]

I'm getting fed up with speculation.Period.

Come on Steve!! It's time to let the cat out of the bag!!

[syklee26]

just about how much battery saving and how much faster of startup are we talking about here?

[Maccus Aurelius]

I think people are too impatient with this kind of stuff. It's like all of your computers are suddenly sputtering and falling apart and Steve is sitting there twiddling his fingers.

A flash based notebook is probably not going to come out for a while, especially from Apple. If they're wise, and I'm banking on the assumption that they are, they'd hold out until the tech is cheap enough to offer a good solid performer so they don't end up with a very competent commercial failure because of a high price that upsets perceived quality.

[Maccus Aurelius]

Originally Posted by syklee26

just about how much battery saving and how much faster of startup are we talking about here?

It would probably only take a couple of seconds to boot into the full desktop as standard drives have to spool up and compile the data beforehand. Think less than half the time it takes for present macs to boot.

The battery time could possibly be improved by an additional few hours since the actual rotating media sucks up quite a bit of juice. If you watch movies on the road with your laptop you could probably get a good 5-6 hours depending on display settings instead of the 2 1/2-3 that one gets with a macbook watching a movie in H.264.

[belovedmonster]

When I think about these subnotebook things I always imaged them as being as underpowered, but in a good way. I dont wanna lug around a bulky heavy laptop that can render iMovies when I just wanna write plain text and check my email, what I want is something super small, and cheap. Basically I want something that is a pencil and paper replacement, not a desktop multimedia computer replacement. When I go to class I take a pad of lined paper and a pen, that's all i want to recreate in electronic form. I don't need or want to carry a proper computer around.

[roland.g]

With the cost of flash memory, couldn't they put 8GB flash in there for OS and Apps and a 1.8" or 2.5" drive for data. Quick boot, less power draw for OS and Apps, accesses drive only for other data, swaps open docs, files, etc to flash while in use, writes to drive upon save/close.