Ultra-Portable MacBook Likely at Macworld San Francisco 2008?

[plumbingandtech]

Oh, please. Can we stop recycling all this "Analyst" garbage?

Let's get real here and realize that Gene doesn't actually have more info than any of us. His sources are Apple rumors sites! See?

Actually he talks to people in the supply chain, China, Taiwan etc. And makes judgements based on supply inventory and other parameters.

So you are wrong.

 

[cloudnine]

I'll be in line to buy as soon as its released!

Ditto! I still have my maxed out PB G4 12", and I've refused to get a MBP or MB because they're too big (I have a 23" cinema display for when I need the size...) to lug around with me everywhere I go. I love the portability of my PowerBook, but it's getting to be the time where I have to give the baby up. I've gone this long without Adobe CS3, which stinks... if they don't release this rumored ultraportable, I guess I'll have to suck it up and get a 15"

 

[cohibadad]

sweet. if the likelihood of things coming out is directly related to the number of posts on mac rumor sites then we got a lot of amazing stuff coming!

 

[MattJessop]

While this is kinda old news, I'd definitely would love to see something of this sort (even though I wouldn't buy one just yet)

As for ultra-portables at uni? I'm pretty darn happy with my Macbook for Uni. It's so much smaller than anybody else's laptop, and it's light and easy to carry, plus it has a really great case.

I'm not sure if a tablet would be overly great? It'd have its uses, but I'm much more content to have something that I can work on a full proper essay with. I've owned smaller word processing devices, and by god are they not nice to work on for more than 5 mins

 

[Manatee]

So should we all retrieve our posts from the previous thread?

It's nice to get a reminder of the anticipated specs -- the footprint of a 15" MBP, half the weight (2.8 lbs), very slim, possible SSHD. This is the device I'm hoping for. I don't want a hand-held, or a low-priced gadget. I want a light, elegant, fully-functioning computer that runs OS X.

 

[zwida]

I'd have no choice but to buy at least one for personal use. Frankly, if the specs were strong enough, I'd buy them for my staff to replace their last gen PowerBooks.

 

[RichP]

I think a tablet is not going to happen. If we have a tablet, we are probably going to have an OS very similar in GUI to iphone. That means that you will not be installing OSX apps on it (pshop, office, etc) I dont want a glorified internet tablet, I want a superportable laptop that can run adobe and office apps (even if they dont run extremely fast)

Beside, handwriting recognition I feel is old tech. Most people type faster and can enter data more quickly than by writing. I can hardly read my handwriting these days, how can I expect a machine to?

 

[Rhosfelt]

idk about you guys but I love my MBP and I would want an nice update to the PRO laptop. something like extremely thin and maybe a 13"ws

have to keep my backlight keyboard and video card for gaming on the go. I'd even take just a bump in processor speed, I belive I am running a 2gz Core Duo so a 2.5 C2D is good enough in my book

I already have a iPt and there is a good chance I'm getting an iPhone too, so I wouldn't go anywhere near a tablet. I always make fun of table pc users so no thanks. I'd rather do video and image editing than draw on a screen.

 

[cloudnine]

if the rumors are true and steve doesn't blow it, by pricing the damn thing too high as usual, i'll take at least one and maybe two... heck you can bundle two of 'em with an airport (apple tv?/needs streaming hd video) and sell it as a family entertainment bundle.

Well, not to burst your bubble, but Apple would never "bundle" one of their laptops with something else... but yeah, I'm also concerned about the pricing... especially since they would probably attempt to use the NAND flash memory as a selling point.

However, we have to admit that Apple's been doing *a lot* better about the pricing of their computers to make them more accessible and reasonable in the past year or so... hell, how many times did Steve Jobs stress at the keynote presentation when he released the Mac Pro that the price was much lower than the PowerMac G5?

Maybe it's stupid of me, but I'm getting my hopes up with this one...

 

[boxlight]

any price predictions? cheaper or more expensive?

I'd like to get an inexpensive laptop just for web browsing around the house, I'm wondering would such a "ultra-portable" typically be more expensive or less expensive than, say, the cheapest MacBook?

 

[DaBrain]

I'll be in line to buy as soon as its released!

I'll await the pricing info!

 

[bdkennedy1]

What do we need an ultra-portable for? What would it be used for? Didn't Apple already try this with the 12" PowerBook that nobody bought?

 

[Data]

I wanna love it, be i only could if i would be able to stick a regular cd/dvd into it to play/import it, otherwise id will not do for me,and in earlier rumors i rad that the woun't be puting in a superdive

 

[plumbingandtech]

That's the thing.

What price?

lowend 1200$ or higher end $1800-$2000.

If it is priced higher I want horsepower in the thing.

I mean really, if the thing does not provide more horsepower and costs $1800 then the macbook, I (and I bet a few others.) will just buy a macbook which not quite as small, is close to performance of a macbook pro (except for graphics cards which I do not care about) and is built like a little tank so you can toss it around.


Edit:

Unless it has multitouch and the screen detaches! Then I will spend more.


Edit 2:

As you prob. guessed this would be my travel, take to the living room,coffee house machine and not my main mac.

 

[jnc]

Where's all this "tablet" hububb coming from? That's a pipedream if ever I heard one -- straight after the iPhone and iPod touch come on the scene, you really think some magical, do everything tablet's gonna follow? whatever...

A super-slim 13" macbook pro... sounds a lot more like it. $1999. Shipping tomorrow

Oh, and it'll definitely cost more than a MacBook - it's not all about specs, you pay a premium for the slim and light more portable design. I wouldn't expect speeds any faster than the latest MacBooks, but I would expect a dedicated GPU

 

[cloudnine]

I'd like to get an inexpensive laptop just for web browsing around the house, I'm wondering would such a "ultra-portable" typically be more expensive or less expensive than, say, the cheapest MacBook?

That's a good question... it all depends on the specs, though. If they market it as a "mini-macbook pro", I would assume that it would be more expensive than the MacBook. Plus, as I wrote in a post earlier, I'm also concerned that Apple would try to use the NAND flash (if that's what they would use) as a selling point. However, because of the size and cooling requirements, I wonder if the specs would have to be relatively low, therefore lowering the price?

However, I *am* just speaking out of my a$$, so who knows

 

[cloudnine]

What do we need an ultra-portable for? What would it be used for? Didn't Apple already try this with the 12" PowerBook that nobody bought?

It's funny that you say that... I go to a coffee shop to work all the time, and believe it or not, the majority of people in there are still using their 12" PowerBooks because they love the ultraportability... I still see them everywhere. And also, if you follow the forums here, you'll see that a bunch of people still use them, as well.

Not to point out that you're wrong or anything, but...

 

[plumbingandtech]

It's funny that you say that... I go to a coffee shop to work all the time, and believe it or not, the majority of people in there are still using their 12" PowerBooks because they love the ultraportability... I still see them everywhere. And also, if you follow the forums here, you'll see that a bunch of people still use them, as well.

Not to point out that you're wrong or anything, but...

To say nothing of their resale value which is still really high, AND the japanese market which loves sub-notebooks and is a market that apple is not doing quite as well in as they hoped.

 

[cloudnine]

To say nothing of their resale value which is still really high, AND the japanese market which loves sub-notebooks and is a market that apple is not doing quite as well in as they hoped.

Yeah, exactly! I was looking on http://www.craigslist.org the other day (for if/when I decide to sell my PowerBook), and they're still selling anywhere from $650 to $900! For a machine that's more than 2 years old! Yet another reason I love hehe

 

[tuneman07]

Ultra portable sounds like a stupid idea to me really, I want a macbook with a dedicated graphics card. Honestly if you can carry a 13 inch 5 lb laptop around is a 11 inch 4.3 pound one going to really blow you away? The size isn't going to matter much and you will probably be sacrificing tons of performance. Honestly leave the crazy "lets see how small we can make something" to the Japanese.

 

[appleengineer]

We've seen this rumored EVERY year. I don't think its going to be true. Where's the proof?

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that the likelihood of an ultra-portable MacBook is about 85% at Macworld San Francisco.

Munster bases this prediction on circulating rumors about the ultraportable MacBook that have been making the rounds amongst Mac rumor sites over the past few months.


The new ultraportable MacBooks are rumored to be aluminum clad, 50% lighter and "strikingly slimmer" than the existing 15" MacBook Pros. They are also expected to incorporate NAND Flash memory to improve battery life and boot times.

Macworld San Francisco takes place January 14-18th 2008 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

Article Link

 

[Clive At Five]

This news doesn't excite me in the least. We don't need another laptop; we've got laptops. What we really need is a Mac tablet!!!

I agree that a tablet would indeed be a "killer ap," and the ultimate suppliment to one's desktop (or other main computer), but we have to keep in mind the most important thing at which no tablet to date has succeeded at: Portability.

We can rattle on about wish-lists and must-have-features, but what we really need is a unit that is light, thin, and has a long battery life. One needs to be able to easily carry the tablet in one hand and interface with the other. I see these as the most important goals in creating a tablet.

In order to accomplish this, we'll have to sacrifice a lot of power. That being said, I don't see how, at this point, we could give it any more complex of an OS than the iPhone and therefore, bmight just be dismissed as just "a big iPhone." Maybe that's what we need, but I'm assuming that people are going to want its capabilities to lie somewhere between the iPhone's and the MacBook's. If this is that case, I think we have a year or two to wait.

See, the iPhone's UI is limited by the size of its screen. Surely the SOCs inside the iPhone will become more powerful, but you'll never be able to run a program that requires a larger screen. A tablet, however, could use these moblie chips and benefit from a the larger screen, as that is its niche, so I forsee a resurgence of "true" tablets in a year or so, as we really start to chart out more-and-more powerful SOCs.

Wow. That ended up being sort of a thread-jack. Sorry, all.

Summary: I don't see an adequate tablet being a reality for another couple years.

-Clive

 

[SthrnCmfrtr]

We've seen this rumored EVERY year. I don't think its going to be true. Where's the proof?

I share your misgivings.

I could add that 93.24% of all probabilities are made up on the spot.

 

[MacTheSpoon]

I will buy one. Not looking forward to how expensive this will probably be, though... sigh... Oh well, at least I have a few months to ready myself for the hit to my wallet.

 

[Orng]

Let's get real here and realize that Gene doesn't actually have more info than any of us. His sources are Apple rumors sites! See?
-Clive

Well, at least we know that Gene isn't posting as Clive at Five... unless this quote is a clever ruse...