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Analysis: Other surprises on Monday

U

utilizer

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 12, 2002
154
0
In Atlanta!
As a web designer, I find it hard to believe this was an accident. And the people talking about the different font style the spec graphic had, I say this: They could be redoing the entire Apple Store on Monday, after all, they will be starting another chapter!

You will see PowerBook 970s with 1.4 ghz processors in 'em. I think that's a nice balance. Those laptops won't sell without a 970, bottomline, no one will care if it has a G4 running at 1.5 ghz, if it could get up that high.

When Panther gets unveiled, I also believe you'll see a switch to the IBM G3 "Gobi" processors, sometime this fall.

Then that leaves the last product to need changes, none other than the iMac -- Christmas time, iMacs move to 1.6 ghz.

MWSF: We move to the 980s. Why? IBM seems to be pretty conservative as to when they'll have something available (this 970 wasn't supposed to be here at all until at least November of this year!).

Also, I think it's safe to say something I heard from the "GAP" Store this past week that didn't get reported: Look for a special edition of the PowerBook or iBook that is a convertible, meaning the display swivels 180 degrees and converts into a tablet from a laptop. [They] didn't say when to expect it though.

And that's the end of the story.
 
IBM's G3 (Gobi).... It's probable for the iBook. But, the "G3" name willl sound a bit negative. We can safely assum that the new 970-Mac will be called "G5", leaving the G4 behind (finally). The G4 will stay in the consumer Macs for quite some time, leaving the Gobi in the iBook.
So finally we have outlived the G4, but there's still a G3 processor in a Mac aswelll.
I wonder how Apple will market that chip... G4 and-a-half? :D

BTW, I'm in Atlanta during my summer holiday in the US! Know nice pubs? :)
 
Originally posted by MacsRgr8
...but there's still a G3 processor in a Mac aswelll.
I wonder how Apple will market that chip... G4 and-a-half? :D
Click to expand...

-MacsRgr8

You bring up an interesting angle. Do you suppose it is possible we're at the cusp of an evolutionary step in personal computing when what processor your machine has, is becoming less important than the overall experience.

Hmm.

That would contribute to reasons why Apple has survived at all wouldn't it?

Does Ford tout it's engine like they used to 50 years ago? No. We may be headed there with computers.

I certainly hope we are at such a step.
 
Originally posted by patrick0brien
-MacsRgr8

You bring up an interesting angle. Do you suppose it is possible we're at the cusp of an evolutionary step in personal computing when what processor your machine has, is becoming less important than the overall experience.

Hmm.

That would contribute to reasons why Apple has survived at all wouldn't it?

Does Ford tout it's engine like they used to 50 years ago? No. We may be headed there with computers.

I certainly hope we are at such a step.
Click to expand...

I agree. The focal point of the new iBooks will probably be just that. I'm sure the marketing dept. of Apple is trying to figure this out right now! I just don't see how they can continue buying G4s from Motorola. I don't know if IBM would be willing to devote resources to that chip as well; they've dogged it from day one when Moto released it, saying it wasn't fast if the application didn't have Altivec in it.

Better elegance and experience vs. brute force and power. I like it. But will the consumer buy that argument? :confused:
 
yeah, bring on an affordable laptop (iBook) and new alffordable desktop (iCube???) with the gobi G3. would be the perfect machine for people like me who want a nice and inexpensive no-frills computer...

I mean really cheap:
- entry level iBook at $900
- iCube G3 at $500

niiiiiiiice :D :D :D get this shizznit out Apple and you get my money right away...

vSpacken (slightly drunk ;) )
 
Originally posted by patrick0brien
-MacsRgr8

You bring up an interesting angle. Do you suppose it is possible we're at the cusp of an evolutionary step in personal computing when what processor your machine has, is becoming less important than the overall experience.

Hmm.

That would contribute to reasons why Apple has survived at all wouldn't it?

Does Ford tout it's engine like they used to 50 years ago? No. We may be headed there with computers.

I certainly hope we are at such a step.
Click to expand...

That'll be a gr8 day.
But that feeling will still be a peronal one. Making car engines more powerfull and faster isn't a necessity because there are laws prohibiting using that feature.
With computers that's different. Wouldn't it be gr8 if we would be able to encode our one hour holiday movie in 2 seconds, and burn the whole thing on a DVD in less than a minute?
Wouldn't it be gr8 if we could play games at the quality of a movie? Making the surrroundings 100% interactive, just like real life?
The point is that indeed some folks already have reached that day!
If you use the computer for word processing, and browsing internet, you wouldn't need a 1 GHz G4. But most of us have one or more resons to believe that they want endless speed.
On the other hand, I personally think that overall experience outweighs a liitle bit of speed improvement, yep. :)
 
Re: Analysis: Other surprises on Monday

Originally posted by utilizer
They could be redoing the entire Apple Store on Monday, after all, they will be starting another chapter!

You will see PowerBook 970s with 1.4 ghz processors in 'em. I think that's a nice balance. Those laptops won't sell without a 970, bottomline, no one will care if it has a G4 running at 1.5 ghz, if it could get up that high.

When Panther gets unveiled, I also believe you'll see a switch to the IBM G3 "Gobi" processors, sometime this fall.
Click to expand...
That s MO as well. I really hope they will call the g3 gobi something like g5- mobile. the contrast between g3 and g5 is just to enormous otherwise ( judging of the name .. )


Then that leaves the last product to need changes, none other than the iMac -- Christmas time, iMacs move to 1.6 ghz.
Click to expand...


Do you mean the 970 right now ? or the g4 pushed to the absolut limit. I guess the 970, but am not totally sure, please clarify


MWSF: We move to the 980s. Why? IBM seems to be pretty conservative as to when they'll have something available (this 970 wasn't supposed to be here at all until at least November of this year!).

Also, I think it's safe to say something I heard from the "GAP" Store this past week that didn't get reported: Look for a special edition of the PowerBook or iBook that is a convertible, meaning the display swivels 180 degrees and converts into a tablet from a laptop. [They] didn't say when to expect it though.

And that's the end of the story.
Click to expand...
 
Maybe PowerBooks with G4s AND 970s. 12 w/ 1+ G4, 15 w/ 1 or 1.25 GHz G4 and 1 or 1.25 GHz 970, 17 w/ 1 or 1.25 970? Maybe iMacs with 1.2 to 1.6 Ghz G4s or 970s? Be harder to justlfy iBooks or eMacs unless they're super cheap. I'd love a cheap, headless Gobi, G4, or low-end 970 to play with.

I know I'm being vague, but I have no idea what's coming.

We'll see.
 
Originally posted by solvs
Maybe PowerBooks with G4s AND 970s. 12 w/ 1+ G4, 15 w/ 1 or 1.25 GHz G4 and 1 or 1.25 GHz 970, 17 w/ 1 or 1.25 970? Maybe iMacs with 1.2 to 1.6 Ghz G4s or 970s? Be harder to justlfy iBooks or eMacs unless they're super cheap. I'd love a cheap, headless Gobi, G4, or low-end 970 to play with.

I know I'm being vague, but I have no idea what's coming.

We'll see.
Click to expand...

If we see a Powermac 970 why would apple use the more EXPENSIVE G4 in its consumer machines/laptops at all? Why not use the 970 in all their computers and maybe the G3 gobi in the iBook?
 
I think the Gobi/Mojave G3 is irrelevant at this point. It would have made sense if Apple/IBM hadn't already breached the 2 GHz+ speeds in the PPC 970.

But if they did, then putting anything less than a 1 GHz PPC 970 in the entire product line will be suicide for Apple. There is no power/heat benefit to any G4 over the 1 GHz PPC 970, yet the 1 GHz PPC 970 is as fast as no less than a 1.5 GHz G4.

Apple needs to swiftly move to PPC 970 machines across the board, to market the fact that their entire computing line is being sold with 64-bit processors. The rumors of IBM's fabrication success makes this completely possible.

I've said it before, and I will say it again now. Apple does NOT need to use the CPU chip (G3 vs. G4, G4 vs. G5) to distinguish it's product line. The other specs do a fine job of that right now, when every single machine has a G4 except the iBook. There is NO logical reason anyone can come up with that proves Apple can't put the PPC 970 in every single machine and still sell tons of each model. If anything, they'll sell even more by not holding back the PPC 970 from consumer models for a year.

-- Ensoniq
 
Re: Re: Analysis: Other surprises on Monday

Originally posted by maradong

Do you mean the 970 right now ? or the g4 pushed to the absolut limit. I guess the 970, but am not totally sure, please clarify [/B]
Click to expand...

You guessed right by saying the 970. People like TechTV and others will be promoting such gear to get for the masses; they will dog the machine if it doesn't have a 970 by then. At the very least, it's gotta have a 970, running at, who knows, 900 mhz! No, seriously, the ignorance out there boggles the mind: case in point, the analysts out there STILL talking about the GHZ gap and how that hurts Apple. The chip hasn't even been unveiled in the machines yet and they continue to dog both Apple and AMD for low clock speeds, even though AMD's at least on par with whatever Intel has and according to ArsTechnica, the 970 is at least on par with a 3 Ghz P4 against ONE 970 at 1.8 Ghz on paper, not to mention with a 100 mhz less system bus then the one coming with the flagship tomorrow! Now, I wonder how those dual 2 Ghz will, and they will, slaughter the new 3.2 Ghz P4 the 800 mhz frontside bus coming out tomorrow! Let the wars begin.
 
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