Is the 15inch AlPB really coming soon? - Page 8

Does anyone else see the irony in relying on a rumor to prove that all previous rumors were false? If we now know the previous rumors were untrue, why is everyone so eager to believe the latest one?

The 7457 was slated to ship in the FOURTH QUARTER of 2003. Unless I'm very much mistaken, the FOURTH QUARTER starts NEXT MONTH. As I've said before, the 7457 is about two years late in the general scheme of things, but there is NO proof that Moto ever intended to ship chips before this quarter.

Pure genius...I stand so corrected

Lighten up.

It does indeed prove something: the "they're here" stuff from a few weeks ago WAS false, so...

Unless they come tonight by some miracle, then what I say holds together a bit. They were wrong about being right, but no more wrong than the wrongness they tried to pass off as being right. Right?

Hey Paul, Who's on First?!

He's wrong, whoever he is.

Paul

I LIKE YOUR SIGNATURE!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Amorph
[B]No, it comes down to more than two things:

I would add even more. The problems of Motorola are far beyond the chip division which has fallen off top ten chip makers for the first time in history.

Their mobile phone division, which has been the major money maker, is also faltering globally. Take for example here in China, the largest mobile phone market in the world with about 250 million subscribers, their market share has fallen from 30% to 10% in just two years!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't care what the problem is, I just want a Powerbook. I sold my TiBook under the impression that we would be getting new 15" Powerbooks within weeks. Now I am stuck on an iBook that I can't edit video on and is slow as hell. I know I shouldn't have sold my Ti, but I got a great price for it and was afraid it would lose another percentage of value if I hadn't sold it. I am seriously considering just getting WHATEVER 15" comes out, but I am really going to try to wait until the G5s are put in. Damn it all...

Wow, filmmaker...I would never base a purchase OR selling decision on what's "supposed" to happen.

Well, not anymore. Not after this little 4 month episode!

eh, it's all good. It didn't have a warranty on it any more, so I didn't want to have it and have something go wrong that I couldn't fix, so...ultimately it was a good sale. That and I have a Dual Gig MDD to edit and play games with, sometimes I just wish I could do the same on a Powerbook. Soon though...hopefully we'll see something soon and/or a PBG5 at MWSF, or if we are REALLY lucky...Paris...but probably not at this point.

Apple's biggest riddle for 2003 has finally been solved -- "Year of the Notebook".

It clearly means you could buy any Apple notebook this year and not worry about it becoming obsolete until next year -- or, perhaps, the year after...

The saying isn't "sell on rumor, buy on news," it's "buy on rumor, sell on news." And it applies to the stock market, not the personal computer market.

And news just at hand. Apple Australia's ETA for 15PB's have gone from Week2/week3 to week3/week4.

This does not look good people. Or does it? It doesn't exactly sound like anything new WILL come soon. Interesting waiting times ahead boys and girls!

In business it's considered a "going concern" if what we read about moto about the quality of its chips what company could expect another who uses there product not to repond by looking for alternatives. usually long standing relat ionaships give the other the benefit of the doubt, but what i understand moto has had a meltdown, all apple would have to say is give us competitive product.......no reponse.........poor product.....new relationships.
I too believe that "year of the laptop" was well known to most leaders in the hardware market, more people want these. to not have a parallet plan for a laptop during the g5 developement is nuts. there margin is higher and volumes are higher with laptops as a future not desktops. this moto thing has been bulding for some time, ibm relationship has been building for some time. they must have a stategy to include g5 in laptops, remember steve is working withthe future of apple, not some side show. I think the moto thing should of had a big bump last spring to give apple time for the all new PB's, they had to have these delays because of something, why risk big buck loss just to conjol moto, I think this is good news for us in that some sort of g5 will come to laptops soon. to gather on the momemtum of the g5 powermac. geez wouldn'[t you like to have a laptop cousin of the fastest desktop in the world, omg, when that 5th fastest g5 based supercomputer comes out, can you imagine the sales pitch for the g5 PB?????? That PR it would be priceless. Talk about Buzz. apple sells 7 percent of the laptops, as far as market share they do better than desktops, now thats year of the laptop stuff, appple just increased it's market share on a high margin product, good grief they had to know this as well, more pressure for putting a g5 PB in our cases. that's why i think we'll see a g5

Well, I keep reading that everyone is out of stock on the 15" PB's. I ordered a new Ti last week, and the ship date still says on or before 9/5/2003. That would be tomorrow, and I can't wait! It's even a custom version. I dropped out the superdrive and just went with a combo on the 1ghz one. So, if it actually ships and comes in quickly, wouldn't that suggest that apple is still mass producing these things? Just wondering... this is my first mac, and I don't know the mind of Apple... yet.

ME

Congrats on your first mac. You lucky ducky I ordered mine last week too and my ship date says 9/8/03. I got the same config as you. Did you get the 1 gig of ram too?

Nah, just 512 so I can upgrade it for less money from crucial or something. They want a lot for RAM these days from Apple!

ME

Last night I did my weekly "dry order a PB and check shipping times" thing, and I noticed something odd (at least to me): Shipping times for BTO PBs were shorter than for "stock" PBs: 5-7 days for an unmodified 1GHz SD 'book, and 3-5 days for a modified (added RAM, etc) SD 'book. First time I noticed that happening.

iMacs are now at 5-7 or 3-5 from "shipping immediately" yesterday.

My pbook that said it was going to ship tomorrow... JUST SHIPPED! HELL YEAH!

ME

I've been using my new TiBook (1Ghz/DVDburner) for just about a month now and I couldn't be happier. I just recently switched from the PC world.

My question is, will the forthcoming 15" PB significantly make one more productive due to the better features especially when one uses the iLife and Office suite programs?

Just wondering.

Get this, where are they shipping my pbook from?!


Sep 4, 2003 10:37 pm

Arrived at FedEx Ramp

TA YUAN HSIANG TW




4:08 pm

Left FedEx Origin Location

TAOYUAN CITY TW




3:44 pm

Pickup status

TAOYUAN CITY TW

Package received after FedEx cutoff time


And I'm supposed to have 2nd day delivery, and it says expected ship date of the 9th. arrrggghh...

ME

PC-to-mac: They are shipping directly from the plant. Although many people have commented lately that this indicates the channel is especially dry, all my Apple Store powerbooks (3 in the past 10 years) have been shipped direct from Taiwan.

I don't think that "after-hours" note means it is going to be late, however. My Pismo arrived a day earlier than the scheduled date. That and the international date line thing caused it's early arrival to be a pleasant suprise.

No, not likely. The minor improvements expected will be just that...minor. You've got a heck of a nice machine.

I have been waiting for the 12" PB revision for a little over a month now (I was so sure Aug 19 would be it! ). Yesterday I started worrying that even if they were announced in Paris, the updates wouldn't ship for a while, and I kinda need it by the end of the month. Also, I would rather not get hit by the price going back up (unless if it was worth it - ie bigger HD, AE or SD standard). So I gave in and ordered the SD/60GB BTO version. My shipping date currently stands at Sept 18 or before...

Of course, I woke up this morning thinking I've done the entirely wrong thing and I should cancel while I can and wait for the 16th.

So now for the questions:

Does Apple usually ship on the given date or before it?
For how long am I able to cancel the order? Up to the time it ships?
What are the chances a revB 12" would ship immediately or close to it (I think it usually takes a bit longer for product to ship to Australia too...)?

and lastly: Is there any chance my current order would magically become a rev B if it hasn't shipped by the 16th?

Thanks,
cazlar

I just checked and my powerbook just shipped too from :

TAOYUAN CITY TW_

Just like You. PC-to-Mac

Did apple move its headquarters??!?!?

AI second page claims new Powerbooks next Monday or Tuesday:


"Apple may announce and start taking orders for a revamped line of PowerBook G4s as early as next week, one source tells AppleInsider. The tip comes amongst recent recent rumors that have pin-pointed Motorola for failing to deliver sufficient quantities of the PowerPC 7457 to support a successful product launch.

According to the source, Apple management feels that supplies of the faster chips are now ample and the new units could full-fill backorders and be shipping in quantity by mid to late September. Included in the new breed of PowerBooks is said to be a 1.25 GHz aluminum 15" model that sports a back-lit keyboard, ports on the side (as opposed to the rear), and an updated track pad and mouse button.

Sources could not confirm a date or time for the official announcement, but did mention September 9th or 10th as likely candidates. It should be noted that the deployment schedule for the aforementioned units has slipped several times over the past month, while channel inventory of several configurations has remained depleted. Meanwhile, the initial packaging and marketing material for the new portables was said to have been completed over a month ago."

Yeah, right. I think it unlikely that Apple would announce anything next week with one week to go until the Paris expo, unless the products are ready to ship the same day.

or if they're too lackluster to warrant inclusion in the keynote.

It is apparent that there are very few PowerBooks available to purchase right now. So yes, if new PowerBooks were available for immediate shipping and the features weren't worth bragging about, they might well be introduced a week before the expo. But then what would Steve talk about? Perhaps it's time for one of those new "digital devices" we've been expecting for a long time.

I think Apple Expo is gonna be mostly about Panther.

Even if the new PowerBook update kicks ass and is not lackluster (G4 7457 up to 1.3 GHz with backlit keyboard on all models, L3 cache even on the 12 inch), it still wouldn't be Apple Expo material since it's not a G5 or a case redesign.

And if the top speed will be a 1.25 Ghz G4 (according to Appleinsider) then they are using the 7455 chip, not the 7457 chip. You know, if IBM is on track with the mobile G5 chips as suggested then Apple can announce PowerBook G5s in January. So why should I get an updated PowerBook G4 now, especially if it is not going to have the benefits of the 7457 chip? I've waited this long so why not another three months?

Damn straight! I have an iBook to hold me off, screw the Powerbook G4, bring on the Powerbook G5!

Well, sad to say my 15" PB was suppose to ship 9/5/03 (today) but has been bumped to 9/12/03 ........ This is a very sad day indeed folks ..... especially when I ordered it last Thursday ........ Those bastards!!!

Word for word here is what they said .....

Due to an unexpected supply delay, we are unable to ship the following item(s) by the date that you were originally quoted: PBG4 15.2/1GHZ/512/60/CMBO/AP/LL

**WARNING I AM IMMENSELY FRUSTRATED WAITING FOR THE NEW !15 INCH POWERBOOK**

IF after all this time all they can put in the new powerbooks are 1.25 G4's than why not instead put 1 gigahertz G5's yes 1 which is even less than the 1.2 lower end of the G5 I am saying underclock the Biatch if power is the problem a 1 gig G5 will outperform the G4... oh hell just release the same damn thing in aluminum casing for less money and I would bite at this point.... from reading this damn site I thought the 15 inch powerbooks were gonna be out months ago... all this freaking waiting... why did I ever read this site YOU BASTARDS!!



(insert slight bit of sarcarsm--- however I am really pissed.... I wish I just bought the old clunker)

Wait if you can. Some of us have no Mac or have old equipment that needs upgrading NOW.

With the channel as dry as it is now I think Apple will release this as soon as possible. Also, September is the end of the fiscal quarter. Even one extra week of shipments could add $10M or $20M to revenue for the quarter.

This indicates that the new powerbooks will indeed be 7457. However, then it says


The 1.25Ghz implies a 7455. So this doesn't add up.

Could it be that the 15 inch may be 1.25GH and the 17 inch will max out at 1.3GHz. Or maybe Apple is somehow under-clocking 7457 a little to get improved battery life or something (like if they get 6.2 hours at 1.3Ghz, but can get 7 hours at 1.25GHz, from a marketing perspective, it makes sense to sacrifice .05Ghz in order to get a Centrino crushing 7 hours of battery life).

I have one word that will probably sum all of that up ..... as Paul had stated previously : Horseshit!

The clock speed doesn't imply anything, other than perhaps the bus speed.

If the bus is staying at 167MHz, then the closest you can get to 1.3GHz is 1.25GHz (with a 7.5:1 clock ratio). Why would the bus stay at 167MHz? Partly because Mot hasn't said the 7457's bus can clock higher than that; but since that hasn't stopped Apple before, the main reason would be that Apple can drop the 7457 in with zero changes to the current motherboard. The revision then revolves around case, CPU, HDD, optical, and GPU - all stuff that can be upgraded without much work at all.

The bulk of the work would involve bringing the 17"'s features down to the 15", and (to whatever extent) the 12".

That's what I'm betting on for the next release. It would be a substantial upgrade involving a minimum of work for Apple engineers (basically none for the 17" since its upgrades would all be drop-in, little to none for the 12" depending on what they end up doing), which allows them to concentrate on the G5 PB and the G4 iBook.

I can't help but point out, once more, that no-one should be surprised that a chip that was expected to ship in quantity in October ends up shipping in quantity in October. If Apple gets a good supply before then, bully for Motorola. But that would put them ahead of the schedule they've offered since January at the latest.

I did some digging on Motorola's site, and found the typical/max power consumption rates for the 7455 and 7457 G4 models.

Check the 7455 data PDF here.

Check the 7457 data PDF here.

In both articles, go to the "Electrical and Thermal Characteristics" section and scroll down a bit until you actually see the tables for the typical and maximum power usage (page 15 on the 7455 chart, page 14 on the 7457 chart). If that's to be believed, a 7457 at 1 GHz actually uses a bit more power than a 7455, not less. That's probably due to the extra L2 cache. The main benefit from the die shrink on the 7457 is probably going to be heat reduction, not power saving.

That's not to say that Apple couldn't still gain battery life. Newer batteries and video chipsets might be more efficient. But I suspect that the only reason for a delay was because Apple didn't want CPU fans blasting at full speed all the time.

[Edit: somehow missed pvs posts]

I almost think they would take orders next week just to calm people down, but god knows when the damn things would ship. Between these forums and personal contact, Apple has to know people are not happy about the update time for 15" books --- I've personally told my rep three times in the past ten days that I'm really not happy to be faced with buying 10-month old hardware.

I would really like to simply sleep until the end of next week, or even the 16th. I can't believe I'm so stressed over a flippin' CPU.

BTW, everyone seems down on MOSR (OK, no "seems" here --- y'all are down on them). My impression of them has always been favorable, but maybe it's just because they like to talk so much. My impression is that they've had a pretty good track record, but to be fair, I haven't been keeping track. Maybe I just want to believe what they are saying.

I've seen all kinds of contradictory information about this, from Motorola documents.

However, there is one constant across all CPUs, and in fact all devices made the same way that CPUs are made: The more power a chip uses, the hotter it is. Given that, and assuming that those PDFs are the correct ones, the gain from the shrink to 130nm lies in the number of transistors that Motorola can spend (e.g. on the larger cache), and in cost savings arising from a smaller die size (more CPUs per wafer = lower cost, assuming constant yields - wait, this is Motorola).