From a business standpoint MacBook is right now being hailed by many as the "best notebook ever made". Apple needs to keep this edge yes, but I think that they will be looking at other ways to ensure the "amazingness" of the machines. I think keeping similar processors with maybe slightly higher clock speeds would be a good idea. Instead, bump up the RAM to 1GB on the higher end models and go to a single 512 DIMM on the mid-grade and lower-grade MacBooks.
To me, they need to add more "innovative gimics". You know, the things that people can say "oooh cool". (adding the keyboard lighting would be a start)
Also, I think that the earliest we'll see a new MacBook is when Leopard is released. It would be much better from a business standpoint to say "Apple's Next Generation of it's No. 1 OS & Laptop" all at once rather than having to split. Also, as far as I'm aware the MacBook is getting people to convert, and it's not a good idea to upset the new customer by releaseing a new operating system a month or two from then. (Why anyone will buy someone a MS computer this xmas is beyond me unless the store promises to come in to your home and load Vista for you for free. Then again, from what I hear about Vista, people might be better without it)
Oh, and bigger hard drives are a must for the MacBook!
