Ultra-Portable MacBook Likely at Macworld San Francisco 2008?

[MacRumors]

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that the likelihood of an ultra-portable MacBook is about 85% at Macworld San Francisco.

Munster bases this prediction on circulating rumors about the ultraportable MacBook that have been making the rounds amongst Mac rumor sites over the past few months.

"As Macworld approaches, reports of an ultraportable MacBook are following patterns of previously expected products that eventually materialized," analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients. "We believe these reports are legitimate and continue to expect Apple to introduce a MacBook with a significantly smaller form factor."

The new ultraportable MacBooks are rumored to be aluminum clad, 50% lighter and "strikingly slimmer" than the existing 15" MacBook Pros. They are also expected to incorporate NAND Flash memory to improve battery life and boot times.

Macworld San Francisco takes place January 14-18th 2008 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

Article Link

[Much Ado]

I want one already.

[Eidorian]

It sounds better then keynote slides at WWDC 2007.

[MrT8064]

Great news, just what i've been waiting for!

[thejadedmonkey]

I've wanted one for ages... give me a reason to sell my MBP, get a windows desktop for gaming, web design, and expandable storage, and and a nice thin mac laptop... mmm heaven

[TripleCore]

It seems logical for a product to fill the gap between an iPhone and laptop form factor. I remember when they released the 12" powerbook, which was stressed as a portable, where they showed photogs taking it in the field. Something like this would be even greater for traveling. But I wonder if this is same or different from a rumored tablet...

[OwlsAndApples]

Please Apple! These sound immense (in quality...not size ).

[DJTJ]

I'll be in line to buy as soon as its released!

[olliebraves20]

Hopefully this will come true!! I wonder what the wait times will be like to get one since I'm sure everyone will want one when they come out....

[headfuzz]

Seeing as by reading all the rumours sites a lot we have already worked this out for ourselves, I reckon we should all demand an Analyst's salary from Piper Jaffray. It's only fair.

[PDE]

likelIhood, not likelYhood.

EDIT: FIXED!

[Digital Skunk]

I will believe it when I see it. And I hope that the price is sort of reasonable. I wouldn't mind an underpowered processor (2GHz or so) but I would love to see the option to make it a true performer, and something that can actually compete with the Dell M1330.

[mrsebastian]

if the rumors are true and steve doesn't blow it, by pricing the damn thing too high as usual, i'll take at least one and maybe two... heck you can bundle two of 'em with an airport (apple tv?/needs streaming hd video) and sell it as a family entertainment bundle.

[Romanesq]

Wonder what the specs would be and what size screen they'd go with?

[AoWolf]

I am in the market for one so this is good news

[koobcamuk]

EVeryone is going to complain so much after MWSF

[plumbingandtech]

One. Please.

[Marx55]

We need ultraportables at our University, but ONLY if they are trully and really ULTRAPORTABLE. For us, that is not another iBook or Mac Book, but something completely different. We want to carry the full Mac OS X experience (read the full of it!) in our pocket. In our hand. Call it iPalm or the revival of the Newton. But make it now.

Why? Because we do not want to carry heavy laptops. We want something as light as an iPod touch, iPhone or similar, but with a true full Mac OS X inside. Of course, full support for Keynote and PowerPoint NATIVE file formats for the ultimate presentation remote experience from the device. Wired and also wireless. Got it? We have an order of several thousand units waiting for!

[notjustjay]

Here we go again.

I'll believe it when I see it.

[itickings]

Originally Posted by notjustjay

Here we go again.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Seconded. Or maybe rather "I'll buy it when I see it".

[Clive At Five]

Oh, please. Can we stop recycling all this "Analyst" garbage?

Let's get real here and realize that Gene doesn't actually have more info than any of us. His sources are Apple rumors sites! See?

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Munster bases this prediction on circulating rumors about the ultraportable MacBook that have been making the rounds amongst Mac rumor sites over the past few months.

Therefore he can't draw any more of an 85% chance than any of us... and I have yet to see any truly compelling stories about ultra-portables. AppleInsider had one a while back, but that's just one report, and they practically worship anything Shaw Wu says, so who knows if it's real.

We should be asking an expert at collecting Apple-Related news and rumors...

Arn, what are the chances we will see an "ultra-portable" (or as I would like to guess, "slightly-more-portable") from Apple at MWSF?

-Clive

[SciTeach]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that the likelihood of an ultra-portable MacBook is about 85% at Macworld San Francisco.
Article Link

That still leaves a 15% chance that it will not happen. Hmmm. Not to sound like a pessimist, but I won't be holding my breath on that one. Still, maybe the new ultra-portable will take those small DVD-Roms you put in camcorders.

Originally Posted by koobcamuk

EVeryone is going to complain so much after MWSF

Don't they always do anyway?

[Oirectine]

One word to this guy: "DUH!"

[ehsteve23]

Originally Posted by itickings

Seconded. Or maybe rather "I'll buy it when I see it".

that sounds about right

[macdaddy57]

This news doesn't excite me in the least. We don't need another laptop; we've got laptops. What we really need is a Mac tablet!!! I want a tablet, 8.5" x 11" or smaller that I can carry around with me. Here's what it would have:

Wi-Fi
EVDO support
Built in webcam and microphone
USB ports
Web browsing
iTunes
View TV shows and movies
Download and read books and magazine articles (think Kindle)
Touch keypad like iPhone (optional handwriting recognition)

This would be the ultimate light-weight, portable media device. With it I could surf the web, send emails, webcam, listen to music, watch movies or TV shows, or even read books and magazines... all with a slender tablet that I could hold like a magazine. I could use it literally anywhere and have Internet access where ever I go. The iPhone screen just isn't large enough for all of these uses.

IMHO Apple is really missing the boat here. This would be a "killer app" type of product not only for the home but I could see everyone at work carrying them around. And if there was built in Exchange access and an open API so that developers could create applications for it, forget about it! Game over, Redmond.

C'mon Steve, make this happen!