cemil said:
At this point, I'd be much happier with the following:
iBooks: 1.33/1.5 with 512 MB of ram standard. same prices.
PBooks: 1.5/1.67 with 1 GB of ram, HUGE, fast, large cached HDs, top-of-the-line video cards, higher res screen, etc. drop price another 250 or so. This would own up to the lack of CPU differentiation but make it worth the difference in other areas, while not limiting the iBook.
Anyways, good, civil discussion is always good.
Look, I'm with you on the PowerBooks not having the power pro users need. I know that they currently do not. If I were in the marker for a pro notebook last year, this would have fit the bill nicely. I agree with McGarry, though, about the historic delay in getting the PowerBooks onto newer desktop hardware. They've tended to average about 2 years behind, which does still give them a few months to go G5. The only problem is that the G4 lasted longer than many other CPUs on the market, and stuck with a single-clock 133MHz max FSB with no actual support for DDR. When released, these were great forward-looking abilities. But since 2002, we've had DDR-enabled notebooks from other manufacturers while FSB has increased dramatically. The G4 processor does what it needs to do (I draw parallels between it and the P3-based Pentium M, which also works extremely well for what it does), but the bus speed and the memory system just choke on the large files pros need to manipulate. Regardless of Apple's history of lagging, they need to recognize that they held on to old technology too long and now it's hurting them. If the G4, like the Athlon, had scaled to faster bus speeds and full DDR, the G4 would still be competitive. Not embracing faster bus speeds would have killed AMD as Intel pulled ahead on clock speeds, and likewise it's given Motorola reason to fear for its future with Apple. Apple has the saving grace of not being in direct competition with any other manufacturer on the consumer PowerPC platform and the fact that the G4 is a sturdy performer, which allowed people to overlook its ignorance of changing trends and demands for a while. But they've pushed their luck too far, and they know it.
Now, to the main point for this post. There is no way that Apple could include 1GB of RAM on a single DIMM and drop prices any further. You can clearly see that prices for 1GB modules, though they've fallen, are still high. There is also no precedent for that amount of standard RAM. Most business-oriented notebooks from other vendors have a stock 256, with some offering 512 (almost always 2 DIMMs) standard. Apple's inclusion of a single-DIMM 512MB on the 15" and 17" models shows a strong commitment to maximizing performance with what they've got. They know the G4 can't be pushed any further, but they don't have an alternative ready. No amount of stretching reality can change that. What they can do, and have done, is upgrade the features that they can control and to drop prices. Could they have gone a bit cheaper? Yes. But then when the G5 is ready, they'd have to raise the prices again and deal with unrelenting negativity for not offering a 15" 1.8GHz G5 (or whatever it ends up being) for $1749 like its predecessor (following your wish for a further $250 cut).
As for hard drives, they've got about the largest capacity available. I've not seen 2.5" drives of more than 100GB. Yeah, there are 7200 RPM drives, but spinning faster means more power, which means less battery life, and people who want them can buy them and drop them in on their own. The resolution of the displays is not likely to change, either, as it would break Apple's 100dpi philosophy. I'd have liked to see a better video card, too, but they did make a few minor improvements, and the X800 wasn't ideal for the enclosure while the X700 wasn't available yet. The one thing that really bugs me about the updates is that I feel optical audio support should have extended to the entire line.
What they've done is satisfactory given their strangled hardware availability. When the next PowerBooks come, you can count on a new GPU, a new CPU, real DDR RAM, and hopefully an LCD panel with brighter colors, reduced pixel pitch, better viewing angles, and faster response (in other words, all around better, even if at the same resolution). I see it happening this year, because Tiger begs for a more powerful notebook showcase that supports all the features it has to offer, and because no one is going to accept the dead-horse G4 being dragged out another year. They've conveniently left the price points where they can transition easily and fortified the line with solid features and other components so that when they're ready, the redesigned shell with an all-new processing system can be the focus of the new models.
Until then, let's just all relax and accept that Apple did what they could do now, updating and adjusting prices, but in such a way that won't come back to haunt them when the new machines are ready. We all expect a further increase in standard features AND a G5/dual core G4/G30/Cell, all for the same price or less. This is not easy work, especially given the R&D costs involved in a project that has clearly taken longer than Apple anticipated. The updates are a definite improvement for cost/performance value, even if they are fairly unimpressive. I need more bus throughput and robust manipulation of large files for what I do, and many others do too. It will come, or we will make do with what is available when we can no longer wait. If the current PowerBooks don't meet your needs and you need to buy now, then you can either revise your needs or buy a PC notebook for the interim. Innovation doesn't always fit within our upgrade-cycle timeframes.
