ImAlwaysRight said:
Apple wants to WOW people with the MacBook. I believe they will bring it more in line with the iMac. So I think these are very good possibilities:
• SuperDrive in all models (but could easily be combo in low model)
• Dedicated graphics. Could be as high as the Radeon X1600 (just like iMac) or a mobile chip from nVidea. Integrated graphics is a possibility like the Mini but I think unlikely. Whatever the graphics, it will be the same for all models, not integrated in low end and dedicated graphics in high end. Think how buyers will react to get integrated graphics in a $1400-1500 high end MacBook. Apple ain't gonna do that, so I predict dedicated graphics in all models.
• Higher price tag - It happened with the Mini and MBP, but iMac ended up staying the same. If superdrive and dedicated graphics come in all models, the price will go up to $1099 for the base.
I suspect this is right. It's unfortunate in a way because I think it means Apple's abandoning the low-end completely as far as notebooks go. BTW, I don't think the iBook has been a portable iMac for a while now. It was G3 well after (a year and a half after) the iMac went G4, and the G4 iBook and G4 iMac overlapped for less than a year.
As I said in my post earlier, I just don't see them launching a Mac mini laptop at E3, it'd be laughed at. After a lot of thought, the best I could think of was something like a Core Duo + GMA950 for $999 ("It starts from under $1,000") with ATI X[0-9]*'s in all the more expensive models. They could get away with an E3 release for that, and it might even be easy to build (put the non-GMA950 graphics on a seperate board, and have the motherboard use the GMA950 only if the ATI is missing.)
The focus on E3 as a launch event suggests to me this isn't going to be a portable Mac mini.
I don't necessarily object to the GMA950's inclusion in the Macbook as I did with the Mac mini. It's a poor GPU, but it's also low power and as such works quite well for a laptop; given the iBook's .EDU focus, it works pretty well for the intended market. I also wouldn't object to it's inclusion in the Mac mini if they had come out with a line of Mac minis with something more capable.
The two real wildcard are E3 and the iMac. There are certain things they just can't announce there. If they're choosing to release the MacBook at E3, then it can't be a portable Mac mini (or at least, if it is, it's going to be one or two models of a larger line, not both.)
The iMac is the other wildcard because it's, in many ways, a direct competitor against the iBook given they're both AIO machines priced at that range, and portables, traditionally, have been so much more convenient (not to mention more expensive to manufacture) that they've generally been more expensive than equivalent desktops. I can see a decently spec'd Macbook, one with a Core Duo and a good GPU, making the iMac look ridiculous. That doesn't mean Apple will not do it, after all, they released a 17" MBP that made the 15" look ridiculous.
