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How much do you think the PowerBook G5 will Cost?

K

Koree

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 19, 2004
251
0
Philadelphia
Yeah, i know they are ages away. But i struck a deal with my dad. Since he hates the idea of me getting something that will be out dated drastically in the next 5-6 months. He will give me his old Lombard (G3Powerbook 400 megahertz, 768 megs of ram (he likes ram), and i will get him a PB 15 inch 1.5 gigahertz. Then he will pay for a PowerBook G5 for me the day it ships. So in other words, he gets a new computer from me now, and then i get one in a few months. But i do need to know how much they will cost. So if you guys can guess or think in anyway of what the prices are going to be like and how they have rose from proccessor to proccessor jumps on the powerbooks.

Thanks in advance!
 
erm... apples laptops aren't the cheapest in the world, but they're not the most expenive i wouldn't say. i wouldn't expect a major price increase either if thats what you are thinking might happen. there might be a $100 or so increase on some of the models but thats how much they were reduced by when they were most recently updated. They won't be massively more expensive because people won't buy them.(ok they might!!! :p) i would expect them to be the same price give or take a few dollars or pounds in my case. but a question to ask is, will they include bluetooth and airport extreme for the price? if they don't then they'll kinda be going backwards as its standard now. also will they bump up the hard drives on the larger screen models to say 7200? 5200 in the 12" pb?
well your guess is as good as mine.

but will you still want one if jonathan ive paints it pink?
 
I doubt it'd be THAT much expensive than the top of the line Powerbooks available now, if not the same price...
 
Thanks

Ok,

Yeah they shouldn't rise too much, im hoping it will be some where around 3000 for a med size screen that is maxed out on everything cept ram. Thanks!
 
yep, take a maxed out 15" model and expect the G5 powerbook in default configuration being at most that expensive. however, apple cannot afford to rise prices so i'd expect the G5 powerbook selling for the same price as the current lineup. but anything can happen and the early adopters always pay the price.
 
I would say the 12" version would be around £1.700 without Ram upgrades :rolleyes:

Most definately apple will try to cash in on the extras meaning the bluetooth and airport extreme card will set you back at least an extra £100

Ironically its still gonna be cheaper that a Voodoo or a Hypersonic. All Im saying is they better have an ATI 9700 in there ;)
 
Ari_0 said:
I would say the 12" version would be around £1.700 without Ram upgrades :rolleyes:

Most definately apple will try to cash in on the extras meaning the bluetooth and airport extreme card will set you back at least an extra £100

Ironically its still gonna be cheaper that a Voodoo or a Hypersonic. All Im saying is they better have an ATI 9700 in there ;)
Click to expand...

Ha...

Hahaha!

Oh, man, that was good for a laugh. I think you seriously need to adjust your expectations for the 12" PowerBook if you think there's going to be a G5 in it, since they haven't even managed to get the Radeon 9700 chipset under the hood. They're already struggling to get the 12 watt 1.5ghz 7447A to stay cool in the enclosure, but you're expecting them to stick a far hotter G5 in, along with a more powerful GPU?

Also, the last time I checked, PowerBooks came with built-in Airport Extreme and Bluetooth, so that kind of ruins the claim that Apple would be ripping people off on them.
 
Ari_0 said:
I would say the 12" version would be around £1.700 without Ram upgrades :rolleyes:

Most definately apple will try to cash in on the extras meaning the bluetooth and airport extreme card will set you back at least an extra £100

Ironically its still gonna be cheaper that a Voodoo or a Hypersonic. All Im saying is they better have an ATI 9700 in there ;)
Click to expand...

I hope they get a X600 (http://mirror.ati.com/products/mobilityradeonx600/index.html) in there along with 7200rpm HDD (I think Seagate has some 100GB ones coming at the end of the summer) and hopefully the screens with be updated to HD resolution as well (OLED would be sweet for the power savings).

The top model I expect price to be at least $3000 US.
 
yes. it might very well be that the 12" powerbook doesn't exist anymore, once they get the G5 in the powerbook line. the baby powerbook has always been considered an ibook...
 
I don't think that is a very good agreement (no offense!)

You think that an updated model is going to have a price increase!?!? Why not just save your money til the G5s come out next year? You'll have more money then anyway!

The iPod, Displays, iBooks, PowerMacs all get upgrades - and the price remains the same. The economist in me says - save your money (or invest it) and you'll have more money to buy a better notebook in the future. this is a bad deal.
 
i cant seriously see apple dropping the 12", they've proved that there is a market for it. however would anyone complain if they dropped the 12" and instead put out a bottom of the line, basic 15"? it would be a basic powerbook, with a lesser graphics card and hard drive etc, much like the current 12" powerbook. this would probably reduce the costs in production as they would be making the same enclosures etc as the 15" with different internal stuff.

however i dont see this happening, the 12" will stay, im sure of that but it will probably always be the baby powerbook not only in terms of size but also performance.
 
thatwendigo said:
Ha...

Hahaha!

Oh, man, that was good for a laugh. I think you seriously need to adjust your expectations for the 12" PowerBook if you think there's going to be a G5 in it, since they haven't even managed to get the Radeon 9700 chipset under the hood. They're already struggling to get the 12 watt 1.5ghz 7447A to stay cool in the enclosure, but you're expecting them to stick a far hotter G5 in, along with a more powerful GPU?

Also, the last time I checked, PowerBooks came with built-in Airport Extreme and Bluetooth, so that kind of ruins the claim that Apple would be ripping people off on them.
Click to expand...

First up, I agree that getting a G5, at least in the guises that we know it in currently, would probably be very difficult, if not impossible to do practically in the 12" form factor.

However, 'struggling' to get a 1.5GHz 7447A in the 12" PowerBook? My 1.33GHz 7447A 12" PowerBook runs substantially cooler than my previous 1GHz 12" PowerBook...outside of running Unreal Tournament 2004 or ripping a DVD, the fan never comes on. How much extra heat is that extra 170MHz going to create? The presence of a 1.33GHz G4 in the 12", and a 1.5GHz in the high-end 15" and the 17" has everything to do with Apple deliberately stratifying its PowerBook range, and very little to do with an intrinsic incompatibility of the 12" form factor with G4s running faster than 1.33GHz. For comparison, what was the heat output of the previous generation 1GHz 133MHz FSB G4 in the Rev. B 12" PowerBook, and for that matter, the 867MHz G4 in the Rev A 12" PowerBook? Each generation of 12" PB has gotten cooler, while increasing overall system speed.

As for the Radeon 9700 Mobility, do you have any figures comparing the heat output of the GeForce FX 5200 Go to ATI's chip? Again, I'd be more willing to believe that the inclusion of the lower-end part in the 12" PB has more to do with cost-saving measures or product stratification than it has to do with engineering.
 
*looks up and prays*

Apple, if you hear me, you'd know I love the 12" PowerBook. If you keep it, I will convert others on to thee :D

Just think of the potential for a Mac Party (Lan Party but with PowerBooks - since PowerBooks are best Laptops within the price/Graphics/weight ratio) once my friends get one.

P.S. Any Londoners here?
 
carletonmusic said:
I don't think that is a very good agreement (no offense!)

You think that an updated model is going to have a price increase!?!? Why not just save your money til the G5s come out next year? You'll have more money then anyway!

The iPod, Displays, iBooks, PowerMacs all get upgrades - and the price remains the same. The economist in me says - save your money (or invest it) and you'll have more money to buy a better notebook in the future. this is a bad deal.
Click to expand...

Seems like the issue isn't money, but necessity. Koree needs a computer NOW, but his/her dad doesn't want Koree to spend the $$ now to get a G4 PB with the G5's on the way. So Dad will give Koree his computer now. But then Dad will need a computer. So Koree buys Dad a computer now, since Dad doesn't mind using an older computer or a computer that will "be obsolete" in 5-6 months. Then Dad will buy Koree a new computer when it comes out.

In any event, I have read in the past that G5s are cheaper to manufacture than G4s (that is, the variable costs -- assuming the costs of the factory and the development are recouped). If so, assuming they can get the cooling technology to work without it costing too much, there is no reason to assume the price of the G5 PB to increase or for them to drop standards like Airport and Bluetooth -- especially if Apple is continuing to push wireless peripherals and features like AirTunes. Apple wants every computer to have wifi technology so if they are at all able to do so, they would want to include Airport Extreme and Bluetooth in every model. IMHO.
 
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