IBOOK, PBOOK AND G5 Updates soon?

[Cheap-Chopstix]

K I know this has been hashed over a billion times but my question is different.

Do you think Apple will update the Ibooks and Pbooks as well as the G5 Pmacs in a relatively short amount of time from each other. Or maybe all at once. It seems like updates for many of these machines are over due. And the Ibook update avg. date in the MR buyers guide is coming up fairly soon as well. Has apple ever launched multiple updates at once or relatively short period before? I dont really see major updates comin up for any of these machines. I think they will be fairly minor in terms of what they have done in the past year.

small Ibook processor updates....(maybe a 2 option processor 12inch ibook like they had before)

small PBOOK processor updates still staying G4 and video card updates (I think they'll move their whole laptop line to ATI designed cards. and ditch NVIDIA--they've been struggling the past year or so)

PMacs processor update maybe totally moving the whole line to dualies. ***Making way for possible G5 single processor IMACS.

I dont really see a single "major" update coming up....so I think it would be possible to launch or even announce all 3 product updates at once.

 

[cr2sh]

Has apple ever launched multiple updates at once or relatively short period before?

Yes, but typically there's a keynote involved.

I'm not sure how over-due iBook updates are... those were updated right before the xserves... g4 and all.

I wouldn't hold your breath. To my knowledge we've never gotten new pmacs, pbooks, and ibooks on the same day.

The expectation is PowerMac updates shortly (april maybe) and powerbooks in a few months (we hope). There is no fact involved here... just rumors and the intuition of folks who've followed this stuff for a while...
Are you in the market for anything in particular?

 

[aswitcher]

K I know this has been hashed over a billion times but my question is different.

Do you think Apple will update the Ibooks and Pbooks as well as the G5 Pmacs in a relatively short amount of time from each other. Or maybe all at once. It seems like updates for many of these machines are over due. And the Ibook update avg. date in the MR buyers guide is coming up fairly soon as well. Has apple ever launched multiple updates at once or relatively short period before? I dont really see major updates comin up for any of these machines. I think they will be fairly minor in terms of what they have done in the past year.

SNIP

Unfortunetly I think we can expect several weeks between announcements assuming that it takes time to put inventory into channels and get it moving, and to maximise early sales by promoting just one product line.

As mentioned, the only exception is likely to be a keynote, and the next one of those doesn't come until the very end of June...

 

[jeremyh]

I'm hoping G5 powerbooks will be out by september. For my 18th birthday this september my parents have promised a laptop (same price as my sisters - enough for a 12"pb) to get me through university.

 

[Ambrose Chapel]

well amazon is offering $100 off *all* Apple laptops until mid-March...trying to clear out inventory for new stuff?

 

[JasonL]

I've never seen such buyers' paralysis until I came here. I, too, got caught up in all of the excitement regarding upcoming releases. However, with many years of computer ownership behind me I find that no matter when you buy a year down the road a better product will be cheaper.

The best thing to do is to buy what you need when you need it. I picked up my 15" PB just one week ago. I was going to hold out for a bit longer to see what came out, but I ended up needing it worse than I thought. Having said that, I am quite happy that I bought now. It is a very capable machine and I imagine I'll get a good 3 years out of it.

I don't know that waiting for the next update to the (G4 still) PBs is all that great of an idea if you could use one now. A slight bump in the processor speed and a slightly better graphics card aren't worth the wait for most users. My 1.25GHz G4 with 1GB of RAM is pretty snappy.

As far as your specific question, I don't see Apple releasing all of those products in close proximity of eachother; but I could be wrong. Of course, almost everything here is purely speculative anyway.

The bottom line is that only time will tell.

 

[Cheap-Chopstix]

I've never seen such buyers' paralysis until I came here. I, too, got caught up in all of the excitement regarding upcoming releases. However, with many years of computer ownership behind me I find that no matter when you buy a year down the road a better product will be cheaper.

The best thing to do is to buy what you need when you need it. I picked up my 15" PB just one week ago. I was going to hold out for a bit longer to see what came out, but I ended up needing it worse than I thought. Having said that, I am quite happy that I bought now. It is a very capable machine and I imagine I'll get a good 3 years out of it.

I don't know that waiting for the next update to the (G4 still) PBs is all that great of an idea if you could use one now. A slight bump in the processor speed and a slightly better graphics card aren't worth the wait for most users. My 1.25GHz G4 with 1GB of RAM is pretty snappy.

As far as your specific question, I don't see Apple releasing all of those products in close proximity of eachother; but I could be wrong. Of course, almost everything here is purely speculative anyway.

The bottom line is that only time will tell.

I am waiting to get a G4 IBOOK as soon as I get my student line of credit approved.

Just was observing all the rumors on the PBOOKS and PMACS being updated and looked at the Macrumors buyers guide and it seemed that the PBOOKS and PMACS are long overdue for an update and the IBOOK approaching that 6 month mark as well.

 

[JasonL]

Yes, as mentioned, it appears that updated PMs and PBs are due. The iBook as mentioned might be a bit longer of a wait. At least you have the student discount to help you out, too. That saved me a few hundred $$ right there. If you are going to finance it you might want to consider a PB if the monthly payments wouldn't be unbearable. I don't know what you have a desktop system, but with the PB you could use it to do pretty much anything. However, if the iBook does what you need it to do than you are all set. A recent Consumer Reports actually rated a 933 MHz iBook pretty highly against a number of Windows machines. I think you'll enjoy whatever you decide on. Good luck.

Jay

 

[encro]

Yawn. Threads... I feel like eating a banana now.

 

[aswitcher]

I've never seen such buyers' paralysis until I came here. I, too, got caught up in all of the excitement regarding upcoming releases. However, with many years of computer ownership behind me I find that no matter when you buy a year down the road a better product will be cheaper.

Another disinsentive for me to buy now is that with salary sacrafice I'll be paying it off over 6 months. It would be very demoralising to be paying a machine off that is superceeded.

 

[michaelrjohnson]

yeah, i was waiting to buy a new powerbook. and thus waiting for rev. b, however, i analyzed my wallet and what i was looking for in an upgrade, and i decided the ibook was right for me. even though i do some intensive computing, in all reality the difference between the 12in iBook and the 12/15in PBs is marginal. (slightly better video card, slightly faster processor, etc.) but it also gets much worse battery life. So the iBook is the best value, and I just decided to buy the darn thing. I will be buying next week.

 

[hob]

OK, Coupla points

1)Yeah - the iBook (G3 at least) vs Powerbook G4 battery life is quite a bit, but not surprising - you want better performance, you're gonna have to pay. Thing is, the 'power save' throttled down processor mode on the PB doesnt seem as drastic as it does on the iBook - it's like even if you want to save power the processor's gonna gobble it up anyway...

2)I've been reading PB G5 rumors for a while now and now I have my PB I have to shake my head at it! *shakes head* I don't think it's gonna happen in any particular hurry:
a) Who needs THAT much power in a portable?
b) The G4 PB get's hot enough already!!

That's all folks!