New MacBook Coming As Soon As Three Weeks Hence?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
by Charles W. Moore
Most of the Apple portable rumor buzz over the past several months has focused on the expected Mac tablet computer, which the most plausible guesses project for release early in 2010, however there are now also rumblings of a new entry-level MacBook which could make its entrance sooner than that -- possibly in Apple’s traditional October-November laptop refresh time envelope.
a couple of weeks back HardMac’s Lionel reported more rumor mill activity a, predicting a new, thinner MacBook, still with a polycarbonate case, but more like the 13” MacBook Pro in form factor, and possibly with no internal optical drive, as well as maybe a $50 price reduction
DPMac’s George Mann also speculated around the same time on new MacBooks, noting that the low-end MacBook is still one of Apple’s best selling computers and predicted a possible 12 or 13-inch model that would sell for around $699 and even 10 or 11-inch model selling for $599.
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George also expects that the new MacBook will still be plastic, but maybe a plastic unibody type of construction -- definitely thinner and lighter and possibly with an external DVD drive, powered by a previous generation Core 2 Duo chip to keep cost down.
George said his biggest fear is that we are going to get a plastic version of the MacBook Air, with a highly stylized enclosure and a single USB 2 port, with an assortment of dongles available for connectivity. Horrors! I hope not. Let the tablet fill that role if it must be filled.
Then late last week AppleInsider’s Kasper Jade reported that he’d been told Apple is planning to retain and redesign its low-end polycarbonate MacBook line due to ongoing economic uncertainties, and is now believed to be closer to a release date than was previously thought, possibly to make their debut in the near term and expected to be the most affordable notebook offerings in the Mac maker’s history. Jade said there isn’t much information on the new MacBook’s industrial design other than hints that it will be thinner, sleeker, and incorporate Apple’s non-swappable internal battery motif, but in white polycarbonate rather than aluminum enclosures. He also notes that he’s heard that these machines are already in production.
This week speculation has become even more intense. Macworld UK’s Nick Spence says “you can add built-in batteries to rumours of a new slimmer lighter entry-level white MacBook.” Citing CNET, Spence suggests that low-cost Intel ultra-low-voltage ‘ULV’ processors like the SU4100 or SU7300 are likely to be part of the new models as well, possibly allowing up to 10-hour battery life.
The Money Times’ Vidya lakshmi thinks Apple’s anticipated low-cost polycarbonate MacBook laptop will be a dream come true for customers who can’t afford the more expensive MacBook Pro, predicting that if the low-cost MacBooks are a reality, they are sure to capture a big market. My inference as well.
Iakshmi says formal announcements related to these new models are expected (he doesn’t say by whom specifically) to be made by the middle of October, and that the new product lines were finalized during September and are currently under production, probably thinner in form factor than the model they will replace thanks to built-in battery technology. Something I haven’t heard elsewhere in the rumor mills is the suggestion that the new MacBooks might support Blu-ray. Frankly, I’ve never mossed Blu-Ray, and would be more inclined to favor going with an external optical drive (more discussion about that below), although Blu-Ray support would be no hardship I guess.
Barrons’ Tiernan Ray blogged that Thomas Weisel analyst Doug Reid on Monday raised his estimates for sales and profit for Apple’s current fiscal year and next. and also mentions Apple’s tablet computer, which he doesn’t expect to see until calendar Q2 2010 (others are now predicting a January 19 release). Ray also quotes Reid saying:
“We instead focus on the prospects for Apple to launch lower price point ($800-900) MacBooks within the next 30-45 days. We believe there is a high likelihood Apple will fortify its entry into the holiday season and that such a move will be a positive for AAPL shares.”
A Mac tablet will be interesting, but I find the prospect of a new base MacBook positively stimulating. I probably have no serious interest in personally buying a tablet computer of any sort. I’m not a touchscreen fan. But a new MacBook; now that’s exciting, as long as Apple gets it right, and being a low-end oriented kind of guy, I can see myself buying one of them, especially if they end up selling for six or seven hundred bucks.
The current polycarbonate MacBook design has been Apple’s best-selling laptop model of all time, and remains so. Frankly, I think that currently an Apple Certified Refurbished 13” unibody MacBook or MacBook Pro represents a much better value, and the uni 13” models are high on my hit parade as the all-round best laptops Apple has ever built -- possibly even displacing my beloved Pismos. Indeed, I would encourage anyone in this size range market to try and scratch up the extra $200 to go for the unibody even if they are buying new. The extra value is certainly there, and then some.
However, the plastic-bodied MacBooks remain popular based on their low-ball (in an Apple context) price and better than decent internal spec, with Core 2 Duo processors, Nvidia 9400M graphics, and support for up to 6 GB of RAM. Apple would be ill-advised to go too radical in changing that winning formula.
That said, the base MacBook is certainly overdue for a major reengineering. The current form factor dates back directly to May, 2006, and essentially way back to May, 2001 when the first while 12” dual-USB iBooks were unveiled, since the 2006 MacBook was basically an Intel-powered development of the 12” and 14” iBooks, splitting the difference in size and weight with a 13.3” display. It’s getting pretty long in the tooth.
How much of the inherent unibody design goodness could be retained in a polycarbonate rendering remains to be seen, but it sounds like an attractive concept. It inevitably won’t have the jewelry-grade precision, bank-vault solidity, and almost eerie silence of the aluminum unibodies, but a monocoque enclosure in polycarbonate should be superior to the squared-off current case design, which has not proved to be the plastic MacBook’s most robust feature with widespread reports of case cracks. Apple can and should do better, and the sooner the better.
While I don’t think it’s time yet to entirely jettison optical drive support, the concept of an external optical drive module a la the MacBook Air’s seems perfectly reasonable, so long as the new machine gets an SD Card slot. External removable media drives have been part of the Apple laptop universe from almost the very first, with the original PowerBook 100 having an external floppy drive, the PowerBook Duos and mid-late ‘90s PowerBook 2400c likewise, and the current Air with its external USB SuperDrive.
However, I would counsel Apple not to follow MacBook Air practice and go stingy with USB ports (an unfortunate Apple tradition that dates back to the original 1999 clamshell iBook with its one measly USB port and no FireWire. Speaking of which, I hope they learned from their major fumble with the Unibody MacBook and will make sure that the new Macbook comes with a FireWire port.
If the mid-October rollout predictions are accurate, we don’t have long to wait before we know. As I said, the prospect of the first bottom-tier Apple laptop total redesign in eight years is exciting, at least for a low-end Mac laptop fan like me. How about you?
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