sick of waiting... Powerbook/iBook info, guesses, wild speculation anyone? - Page 3

Im inclined to agree with you here, but Im also wondering what would the level of concern be on Apple's part, if a 'significant' amount of customers delay their purchase of PB's, in anticipation (speculation) of a forthcoming PB G5.

Im hearing xserve sales have already stalled, PB's remained 'constrained' at the reseller level until next week. Im thinking Apple will try to get these G5 PB's as soon as possible if their analysis suggests a sales decline?, I doubt any heat issues @ 1.2GHz, but is evident at even modest increments, necessitating the process shrink, which will not be required for about 6 months (March 04), that timeline appears doable at Fishkill.

This is unlikely as SJ would surely announce the PB G5 at say Paris in September, is that possible if the PB is speed bumped in July? I assume not!.

My feeling is that the PB 15 has NOT been speed bumped because even the G4 7455 is very hot at speeds above 1G, instead waiting for the 7457 to do the job?

Of course, what could happen as some are predicting, that there will be NO PB announcements at MWNY of ANY kind.

I hope so, because then I will expect SJ to announce the G5 PB (all of them) along with the xserve at Paris in September.

iBooks and iMacs get speed bumped with the 7457 which will be available in quantity by that time, and perfect for the education/ xmas buying season.

Heres hoping!

Too early...way too early. 7457 and that's that!

It would be perfect for the holiday buying season. But, as someone beginning an academic job next month, it quite sucketh for the educational "buying season." Unless you're only interested in shopping for the second semester. Most perfect would be now.

Sorry; erroneous post.

Anyone staying up until 2 a.m. EDT to check to see if the Apple store is being updated? If so, please leave me a wake up call at 1-800-We-B-Lame.

That's why I always wondered why the two Macworld Expos (where new goodies were most often unveiled) were in January and July. January is too late to capitalize on the holiday buying frenzy. July is - according to many stories and info I've heard over the years - too late for mass education purchasing. Due to budgets and time constraints and things like that, I suppose? I'd imagine the bureaucracy and paperwork of purchasing a lab full of 45 computers isn't something that just happens overnight, just because some cool teacher wants it.



Probably huge amounts of paperwork, recalculating, red-tape, reworking the numbers, submitting, being denied, resubmitting, etc. I know it is in the two government jobs I've worked. And I know teachers and school board types, so I know this is the case a lot of the time.

I always favored a May and October Macworld. The May one would get the stuff announced and out there in time for education buyers to gather everything together, make their proposals, make actual purchases, have things configured and installed, etc. in time for school to start in August/September.

Then, for obvious reasons, an October Macworld comes right at the opening of the big holiday shopping period, BEFORE people have spent all their dough and tapped themselves out (like, say, January).



I've always wondered if two things were in place, how it would affect Apple and their standing:

1. A huge expo with new products two months before Christmas, and...

2. A tight, aggressive and high-visibility campaign touting said new goodies, again right at the starting point of that holiday shopping season.

October: Apple releases a kick-ass product (insert fantasy Mac here), followed up by MUCHO TV spots and print ads for this product. On store shelves by Halloween, so a good two months for people to be buying them.

I'm sure for reasons beyond my grasp, January and July are the best, most appropriate times for Macworld. But I'm not sure I know why.

Just curious: what happened to 85xx series of Motorola? I think they were 64-bit embedded processors, but I don't know if they went ever into production. It could be another solution for the powerbooks.

Well, it appears that the fourth option in the poll was the correct one! We will get no new product announcements at Macworld! Apple's shunning of the conference is complete. They want people to know that they don't really care about it anymore. Seems silly to bite the hand that supposedly feeds you, says I.
Many rumors sites and non-rumors sites have indicated that the Macworld Apple booth is "wide open" security wise, indicating that they have absolutely nothing to show at this event.
I personally believe that Apple is nuts. You can ride on the cache of coolness and uniqueness only so far. After a while, people want the goods - especially if their productivity is at stake. Having been a loyal Apple customer and evangelist for years, feel shafted that they've forced us to help "clear their channel" of outmoded TiBooks so they can squeeze out their profits for the day when they decide to finally deliver us with an update which is looking more and more like sometime in September. This will have been the longest Apple has gone in terms of updating their pro portable, which is OVER half a year.
By the time they finally get the freaking AluBooks into the stores, we could possibly be only three months away from announcement of the G5 in a powerbook. So why the hell would anyone want one with a G4?

Infinite Loop indeed.

To poop on?

I suppose if they need a new PB now, they would have to bite the bullet and just order what is there now. Oh well. \

they exploded... and where cancelled
in october/november 2001 there where rumors floating around the web about moto's G5 (75xx or 85xx) and several people stated that they had seen apple prototypes (dual 1.6Ghz 400Mhz FSB etc.)
but it seemed that these processors had a nasty habbit of exploding due to heat issues.
they where delayed (and later on in early 2002 completely cancelled by motorola)

that's why everybody was disappointed @ mwsf2002

Yes, but I think you talk about the Motorola's G5 experiment in the desktop. In the laptop could be entirely different. But I don't know to say for sure.

sure, you know what happened during the falkland war, back in 1982, when an argentinian exocet missile hit an aluminium british transportship, don't you?
well... expect something like that with your hands and the surface of your keyboard while typing on your 17"pb.

btw, i thought the 85xx was an embedded chip like the 84xx...

Anyway, do you know where are today these chips? Used somewhere or abandoned?

The update is not going to happen today. It's 8:12 AM in the east, and the Apple Store is still up and running. Generally when they upgrade hardware "silently," the Apple Store goes down from 8:00 - 9:00 AM eastern. Let's hope for good things tomorrow!

- DAVE

no, more like hell on earth

it excists but is not what you hoped for: 32 bit, rapid io, etc.

Dave, if it weren't for optimists like you, we'd all end up realists.

Pessimists don't buy Macintosh computers or use Apple products.

It's like waiting for a Christmas that never comes

PowerPage has an item about the Joz-note. Here's the PB part:

Jeez, 1 GHz G4 in October? That'd be going a whole year without a speedbump!?

Say it ain't so! Between Jack Campbell saying maybe the Ti will just get a simple speedbump to Jason saying the same old Ti in Al clothing, the rumors we've been hearing are downright dismal!

Well, I've gone through the painful lowering of expectations so if Apple does announce a 1.2 GHz Al PB15, I'll be ecstatic!

Judging from the negative comments, I'm looking forward to a super speedy new PowerBook. From what I can gather from everyone else's comments, it should come with a 1Gb hard disk, maybe USB 1.0 if we're lucky, and perhaps a 200MHz 603e processor. Can't wait! Probably been in black with a stripy apple logo. He he, hope things begin to look up!

My money is on a new PowerBook by the end of the summer (Paris at the latest if not today), and maybe some new unexpected Apple products soon. XServe by the end of the summer as well I reckon. Can't wait!

Check the Page 2 news at MacRumors.

http://page2.macrumors.com/

Supposedly resellers have been asked to remove all current powerbook banners for tomorrow.

hmmm intresting

Actually MacRumors just says the 12" and 17" banners need to be removed.

So does this mean they're updating all the PowerBooks except the one that needs updating? Are we about to see 12" and 17" TiBooks (completely with peeling paint), 133MHz DDR RAM, etc?

That's just odd.

VERY interesting. I wonder why it's a Page 2 rumor, tho. MacRumor's criteria for that are less reliability or less interest. As for reliability, this seems a pretty easy one to confirm. As for interest, see 9 out of 10 AI threads!
In spite of my increasingly cynical self, my pulse just quickened a smidgen. 1,385,936 times bitten, once shy. I'm pathetic.

I suspect that they'll be replaced with banners showing all 3 Powerbooks in aluminum.

Maybe the 12 and 17 inch ads are the only ads up?

Oh, thank goodness! Some hope, a tiny ray of HOPE! 8)

Maybe no one had any ads up for the Ti, just the Als. Guess the new banner will be for the all aluminum trio.

BTW, saw a G5 ad on CNBC today, narrated by Jeff Goldblum.

describe please.

check out general discussion

Something new on LoopRumors:

If Joswiak makes the PB announcement, since his keynote isn't over until 10:30 EDT, the Apple store won't be updated until shortly after that.

IIRC, the big banner for the PowerBooks did indeed just have the 12 and 17, with the "Less is More. More is more" tag line. But it has been a couple of months since I was in an Apple Store so I won't swear to that.

Look at Outpost.com PB availability:

http://shop1.outpost.com/category/Ou...oks/Powerbooks

15" PBs are backordered, rest ship same day.

I am trying not to be excited about tomorrow - preparing for the big let down if nothing is announced. Hopefully some intrepid reporter will get to ask Joswiak or some Apple rep what's going on with the PowerBooks -- if nothing is updated. I'm sure we'll get some kiss-off answer in that scenario, it's worth parsing nonetheless. We should know in some 13 or so hours what will happen. Cross your fingers!

If nothing is introduced I'll shout it out to him during the keynote when it is quiet

Unfortunately most retailers have no real warning of new products... just really good guesses more often than not.

There is a lot of uneasiness in the channel in regard to the release of a new machine and my bet is most of the online retailer have burned off stock.

IF MWNY/CP goes by without mention they will reorder.

If you really want a good litmus... call an AppleStore and ask if they have any...say you need 'six for a new sales team' and ask if they have them in stock.

We'll know in less than 24 hrs now.

Looking at the two available distributions channels ( i won't say which is which) that Apple uses. One has (0) 15 inch powerBooks and the other distributor has over (500) .

TO me this is an indication that one reseller has come to some agreement to handle the "clearing of the channel" for the (as of midnight) discontinued TiBooks model line up.

The first paragraph is a fact, the second i smy guess.

MSKR

One depressing problem/thought: if Joz intros PBs tomorrow and we just had the G5 PM intro'd a month ago, what the hell is Steve going to be able to show off in September, a two button mouse?
Think we've got a little wait for the new 15al though I want, as much as anybody, for it to happen sooner.

... of course they did drop the price on the ti15 and 12 a month and a half ago and they can't have expected to keep burning off inventory till September... could they?... this is killin' me!

Just thought of a possible scenario - tell me what you think:

Tomorrow:

• 12-inch bumped to 1 GHz processor, same pricing
  
• 15-inch 867 model dropped; 1 GHz Ti moves to $1,999
  
• 17-inch bumped to 1.25 GHz processor, price reduced to $2,599
  

Thoughts???

That sucks, big time. Nope, nope, nope.

New AlBooks NOW or there will be rioting in the streets!