I wouldn't say unlikely though if other brands of laptops are seeing the light immediately after Intel launches their chips... that can only mean chips are already on shipment and 14th July is just an auspicious day for Intel to tell the whole world Montevina is officially out on laptops for sale?? I might be wrong, but hope I am right.. 🙁
Considering the substantial, or rather sheer, number of people are still Windows based, Apple will really amaze me if they can sit back and see Windows-platform-laptop-manufacturing companies grabbing back percentage of consumers from this launch, while instead they can recoup a greater margin by introducing it early and together with the school promotion...
All the better iPhone 3G is launching now.. Despite I see the sense of not taking limelight away, I see it as a double winning formula for Apple... For some of an average spender after buying an iPhone, I would suppose he/she will be considering a Mac soon in sometime near future to fully utilise the gadgets or after falling in love with the Apple style... For some of a power spender, I would see him/her buying a MB (casual user) or MBP (power user) soon/immediately after getting the hands on iPhone... that sub 1-2k are not pinching them as much.. a strike-while-the-iron-is-hot release of the newly design MBs and MBPs within the next 2 weeks could generate sales in folds..
For situations above not making sense, even just iPhone lovers not keen on getting any Macs will not care what new Macs are coming up and continue the craze... is Apple losing anything from iPhone sales?