Ultraportable MacBooks are rumored to be aluminum clad, 50% lighter and "strikingly slimmer" to the existing 15" MacBook Pros.

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/11/30/ultra-portable-macbook-likely-at-macworld-san-francisco-2008/

Discuss? If this happens early 08', I will be a switcher!

 

I like the current MacBooks all I want is a 13'' anyway & want good power. So, I'll stay with the current MacBook.
This should be called the MacBook mini or nano

 

It does seem like the amount of rumors indicates this is finally going to happen; but the thing is, there have been rumors of this ever since they stopped making the 12" PowerBook G4.

At this point, I'm in the area of "I'll believe it when I see it".

 

A lot of coworkers at my workplace religiously refuse to give up their 12" powerbooks. They are one of a kind.

 

I'm inclined to believe this rumor, but I'm not sure it will happen at the beginning of the year. 9to5 posted a similar rumor in October. If it has a nice screen and excellent battery life, I'll consider buying one. It probably won't have an optical drive or dedicated graphics if it's going to be that slim though.

 

To be honest, I really don't think Apple really needs an ultraportable MacBook... the MacBook is sufficently small. Having an ultraportable MacBook would probably take some sales away from the current MacBooks...
what Apple needs is a tablet notebook; if this ultraportable MacBook is a tablet.. I think it'll sell wonders.

 

I think it's almost guaranteed it won't have dedicated graphics, regardless of how slim it is - GMAX3100 would seem to be a given.

If it is true they are going for ultraslimness (i.e. considerably slimmer than the 1" thick MacBook Pro), then it does make sense that there wouldn't be an internal optical drive.

In all honesty, that is the kind of thing that would have bothered me in the past, but when I think about how rarely I use an optical drive now (even on my desktop PC), it just isn't that big of a deal to me...... and the noise and battery life drain from doing something like watching a movie off of a DVD rather than ripping it to a digital file or something just isn't worth it.

-Zadillo

 

Maybe it will be a tablet.

 

If these ultraportables won't have an optical drive built in, then count me out. Don't wanna drag an external DVD burner around with me everywhere.

 

The MacBook is on the small side, but also quite heavy for a 13.3" notebook.

This would probably be priced like most other ultraportables, so it is unlikely to take too much away from the MacBook; and frankly, Apple would much rather sell someone a $1500-2000 ultraportable Mac than a $1000-1500 MacBook.

Regarding a tablet Mac; this is another thing that has been rumored for a long time; and many people think that Apple's focus on multitouch interfaces/combined with some of the UI additions to Leopard, point to a touchscreen/tablet Mac.

I'm not so sure this is something Apple "needs" though, or that a Mac tablet would sell "wonders"; has there been any tablet PC so far that has sold "wonders"?

-Zadillo

 

I don't know, I used to think like this too, but honestly, why would you need to carry an external DVD burner around with you everywhere?

I just think about my own use at least, and honestly, I only use optical drives occasionally even on my desktop, to burn things or install software. With laptops, I only rarely have to burn something or install software, so not having something internal just isn't that big of a deal to me.

Moreover, on the go, I don't like using optical drives much anyway because of the battery drain and the noise.

-Zadillo

 

If it really is 50% lighter, (or at least lighter than 4 and a half pounds) then I would buy it, and also if it were as slim if not slimmer than an inch.

Don't know what the aluminum would do to the heat issue, though.

 

Yeah, tablet notebooks haven't gained a tremendous amount of popularity, but look at what Apple did with the iPhone. There are scores of phones with more features, power, and connectivity than the iPhone, but it has been an undeniable success. Apple can take an existing product, put it in pretty packaging, and apply their marketing genius to make any product a hit. Few tech companies receive more press and hype than Apple.

 

This is already the material used on the MacBook Pro, so that is already a known quantity. The heat generated by an ultraportable would probably be inherently less than the MacBook Pro though.

I think it will go without saying that if this rumoured laptop is real, it would be lighter than 4.5 pounds (if it was only .7 pounds lighter than the 15.4" MacBook Pro's 5.2 pounds, it wouldn't be very impressive), and that it will be slimmer than 1" (again, if it was as thick as a 15.4" MBP, it also wouldn't be very notable).

-Zadillo

 

To be fair, the iPhone's UI and interface is notable; I think people fall into this trap of saying "Oh, there are other phones that have more features, etc". My previous phones were a Palm OS-based Treo 650 and a Windows Mobile 6-based AT&T Tilt, and the iPhone's interface trumps both of them for my own use; not to mention that I find the iPhone's web browsing experience to be considerably better than on the Treo or the Tilt (compared to Blazer, Pocket IE or Opera Mini).

Moreover, Apple does generally do more than just "take an existing product, put it in pretty packaging and apply their marketing genius to make any product a hit".

At their best, Apple is able to create new products that are actually more pleasant to use, etc. When they succeed at this, they do have hits on their hand (the iPod didn't succeed just because of marketing, but also because it had a well done interface and good software integration).

But it still requires having something compelling; the AppleTV, for example, hasn't been a hit by any stretch of the imagination, because it doesn't really bring anything new to the table.

I think the difference between things like the iPod and iPhone and the AppleTV demonstrate that it isn't just a matter of taking something that exists and putting it into a pretty package (I'll take out the marketing, since the AppleTV has barely been marketed at all).

So I would agree that Apple has the potential to find success with a tablet, but only if they really do come up with something compelling about the functionality. Some of the multitouch interfaces and concepts from the iPhone could help here, and I suspect Apple might have more of an idea of what to do with it (Dell demonstrated a similar multitouch concept with the upcoming Latitude XT tablet, but they don't seem ready to show any software that really shows why it is necessary; they were still at the tech demo stage, essentially).

 

Apple oftentimes does make stuff easier to use. That's true. I think that the success of the iPhone is not just due to it's UI though. I agree that the iPhone does have something more than a pretty package and marketing, but it's still a big part of it. When was the last time you saw a commercial for a symbian or linux smartphone? I see an iPhone commercial every time I watch TV.

The UI is definitely nicer than the carrier subsidized standard the majority of people are used to. Hopefully it helps consumers realize that unlocked phones are the way forward, and multi-year contracts are a rip-off.

The s60 browser is excellent by the way.

 

True. Although to be fair, there are a lot more Symbian phones on the market.

But again, marketing only takes you so far; it helps make people aware you have a product out there; and the iPhone ads are a nice improvement over other Apple ads because they actually SHOW the interface and how it works, which is especially important in the case of the iPhone since you really do need to show what it does and how it does it, not just that it's an Apple phone.

Once you have the marketing done, you still have to create a product that people like to use.

I've used the S60 browser a bit; seems fine to me; certainly an improvement over Pocket IE and Blazer, and it seemed to be a bit more fluid than Opera Mini or Opera Mobile.

Of course, Nokia also uses WebKit, so I think it seems clear that WebKit based browsers (Nokia's stuff, Google's Android browser, the iPhone Safari browser, etc.) could be coming close to being the de facto standard for mobile browsing.

But anyway, I agree with you.

I think the thing with Apple is, they put a lot of emphasis on everything; UI design, product design, marketing, branding, etc.

You can have a great product, but if you can't market it, it's hard for people to even know it's out there. And you can have great marketing, but if the product stinks, you won't get people who will come back to buy a second version of the device, and you also won't get word of mouth from people.

-Zadillo

 

Are you kidding? The Macbook is stupidly heavy for a 13.3" laptop. It weighs 5.2 lbs! The much larger Macbook Pro only weighs 5.4 lbs! In my eyes the Macbook redesign couldn't come sooner.

 

It actually weighs 5 lbs now.

I wonder if they'll solder RAM onto the logic board. Maybe it will only have one RAM slot.

 

Hrmm, that is interesting.... I was going to say you were wrong, but they do list the weight of the MacBook now as 5.0 pounds rather than 5.2 pounds:

http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html

I wonder what happened there; they didn't change any components I can think of that should have resulted in a .2 pound reduction in weight.... who knows though, maybe they did do something internally.

And 5 pounds is on the heavy side for a 13.3" notebook, but I think this is partially because most 13.3" notebooks are generally designed using lighter-weight materials as opposed to the polycarbonate chassis of the MacBook.... and there does end up being a cost difference there.

I think a MacBook re-design though is unrelated to these rumoured ultraportable Mac concepts though; there will still presumably be a consumer-grade smaller laptop in Apple's lineup, while this ultraportable will probably be considerably more expensive.

-Zadillo

 

This ultraportable will come in around $2000-$2500.

And it will sell well. These things a very popular with Asians, and they will be very popular here.

 

Resurgence of the Duo line!

 

I'm not very interested in a ultraportable MBP, but I would like to see a smaller MBP. Personally, I would like to see a 14.1" MBP replace the current 15.4" form factor. Apple should be able to make a 14.1" model in the 4.5lbs range (given their 5.4lbs 15.4") which is quite portable, yet they don't need to sacrifice things like GPU performance and optical drives. 1440x900 on a 14.1" screen is a pretty high dpi for me, but I believe Leopard does have support in place for application level resolution independence if only people started using it. A 12" form factor without an optical drive could then be used for a tablet for those who need even more portability.

 

Given the relatively small difference in footprint between a 15.4" machine and a 14.1" machine, especially one with the dimensions of the MacBook Pro (which is already on the thin and light side), I am not so sure I buy the idea that you could shave off almost a pound of weight with a 14.1" MacBook Pro.

-Zadillo

 

Road warriors and $tudents will kill for these things...

 

Yeah, no need for a 14.1" but I really do find it curious that after becoming a mostly laptop company, and declaring it the "year of the laptop" a couple/few years ago, that Apple never replaced the 12" Powerbook.

I still see them around.

 

It is still the best notebook I have ever used. The only thing I didn't like about it was the resolution, but a widescreen display would fix that.

 

Yeah. I think that's the thing; from all the rumors, it does seem like Apple has been working internally on the 12" PBG4 replacement for quite a while. It might just be a matter of taking a long time for the technology to get to where they need it to.

I suspect that Apple must want to do something more than just an updated 12" PowerBook G4.

I definitely wouldn't be surprised if this thing finally does see the light of day next month (honestly, with Leopard released, the iPhone released, etc.) it is probably one of the few new things they could introduce. Most other things in the pipeline are inevitabilities that are more a matter of the technology becoming available (i.e. cheaper Flash memory to allow for higher capacity iPod touches so they can replace the "classic" iPods once and for all, 3G for the iPhone, etc.).

-Zadillo

 

Thing is, an updated Powerbook 12" would have sold like hot cakes all these years. It was a very popular form factor, and if I recall correctly, it was priced about the same as the cheaper 15" MBP, ie around $2000.

And it still would not compete with this upcoming subnotebook.

Apple makes some weird decisions sometimes.

I have a Gen I iPod with a 5GB drive and a flaky screen. It still works though, and it's just my car iPod now. Thing weighs a pound and I kinda won't let myself buy a new iPod until it dies completely. Well, I was like hooey, I'm getting an iPod touch. Then they release it with 8GB and 16GB of storage. Not adequate, especially since its main feature is the larger video screen.

Gen I iPod lives and I bagged getting a touch.

 

Oh yeah, no doubt.

There's all sorts of things Apple could be selling that would probably sell quite well; a mid-tower Mac, for example.

But I think one of Apple's goals has also been to streamline their product line as much as possible, and have gone even farther in that direction since the Intel transition. I'm kind of surprised, for example, that Apple never did make a 15.4" MacBook (like how there were both 12 and 14" iBooks).

It was actually available at two price configs: $1599 with a combo drive and $1799 with a SuperDrive:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.33_12.html

Again though, I think Apple is probably looking to do something a bit more with this upcoming ultraportable, if and when it does come out. The 12" PoweBook G4 was still 1.18" thick, and weighed 4.6 pounds.

-Zadillo

 

I think that they might sacrifice a bit of performance for the ultra portable aspect of it.

Perhaps a 1.5 Ghz processor and an 80gig hard drive? Or will they keep it up to date with more options?

 

All depends I guess...... they could use ULV processors, or they could make it something more along the lines of the Lenovo x61, which is still ultraportable but which uses full powered CPU's, etc.

 

More importantly, when did you last see a smartphone commercial that you actually watched?

 

Even a 80GB HDD for an ultraportable MBP might be optimistic if they are using a SSD. What is the biggest size SSD that is commonly available? Last time I checked it was 32GB and I suppose 64GB maybe fairly common now. I know companies have demoed larger units, but I would guess the price and availability wouldn't be optimal.

 

64GB SSD's are starting to show up but still quite expensive.

-Zadillo

 

Just because they are using flash memory doesn't mean this will have a SSD inside. It could be implying the use of hybrid drives, such as the one used in the Sony Vaio SZ650.

 

I have always thought it was strange that the smaller the device gets, and the less it has, the more expensive it becomes .

But I suppose it goes both ways like with the Dell XPS1730 and stuff.

I hope that it can be configured to usable specs though.

 

I don't think it will be exorbitant. Even the Sony TZ, their flagship ultraportable has a configuration priced below $2000. Well they did have one, but it's not on their site any more. I wonder how much Apple can get away with charging? The most expensive TZ configuration is $4000, and at least a couple people on the forum have purchased it.

 

Apple won't price it above the MBP, guarenteed. I'd assume a starting price of 1599 or 1699, with student discount being $150 or $200.

I'm also assuming that it will have full powered C2D processors - Apple isn't averse to making very hot notebooks. Dedicated graphics or not is a toss up - you could argue equally well on either side. I want to say that the Pro line in itself has the distinguishing performance mark of dedicated graphics, but with such a small notebook, it simply may not be feasible for them to fit an 8400M into it. I'm inclined to say it will have dedicated graphics, but I'm being rather optimistic about that...

As for the MB being on the smallish side, well, it really isn't. I mean, if the MBSlim is going to be 50% lighter than the MBP, then its going to be approx 45% lighter than the MB...so yea.

 

The main thing is, the smaller the electronics get, the more complex it is to manufacture, the more specialized parts need to be made, etc.

-Zadillo

 

I doubt this. It will follow the 12" G4 Powerbook lead and start at $1999.

People will buy it since it will be small, lightweight, and the case will be fancy pants aluminum and not plastic.

I don't think there's a chance that this thing comes in under $1999

 

man so im not buying a macbook yet i'll prolyl wait for this, im a student and need something very portable. i dont need it until march/april hopefully b4 i leave they come out wisihng for a macbook pro that is 13inch

 

When did the 12" PowerBook G4 start at $1999? As I recall, there were two configs; a $1599 model with combo drive and $1799 model with SuperDrive.

 

I am wishing for a 19" macbook pro.

 

For some reason I remember the 12" being priced about the same as the lower priced 15".

Is this not the case?

 

What I'm worried about is the heat on these ultra puppies, what kind of heat will they put off?

 

Nope, the 12" model was never cheaper than the comparable 15" model:

12" PowerBook G4 867 MHz
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_867_12.html
$1799

12" PowerBook G4 1.0GHz
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.0_12.html
$1599/$1799

15" PowerBook G4 1.0GHz
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.0_15.html
$1999

15" PowerBook G4 1.25GHz
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.25_15.html
$2599

12" PowerBook G4 1.33GHz
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.33_12.html

$1599 combo drive/$1799 superdrive

15" PowerBook G4 1.33Ghz
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.33_15.html
$1999

12" PowerBook G4 1.5GHz
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.5_12.html

$1499/$1699 (in 2005 the low end model was discontinued and the price of the newer model was dropped to $1499).

15" PowerBook G4 1.5GHz
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.5_15.html
$2499

15" PowerBook G4 1.5GHz with sudden motion sensor and bluetooth
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.5_15_2.html
$1999

 

No, it started at $1599, with the SuperDrive model at $1799, as far as I remember. I think they deleted the one with the combo drive after a while, and the SuperDrive one came down to 1499, but I'm less sure about that...

EDIT: Right, should have read before posting that - Zadillo had all of that and more. I just knew that Apple had the intuitive thing that the bigger it is, the more expensive, contrary to ultraportables and the rest of the notebook world

 

Well, the thing with the 12" PowerBook G4 was that it was still sort of a "lesser" machine compared to the bigger PowerBooks, lacking some of the "premium" features like the backlit keyboard, etc. In some ways the 12" PowerBook G4 had a lot more in common with the 12" iBook G4 than the 15.4" PowerBook G4.

 

But it had a more powerful gpu, a faster CPU, it was thinner and lighter, and was made of aluminum as opposed to polyurethane or whatever. And as far as I seem to remember, even though it wasn't backlit, the PB12's keyboard was far superior to the iBook keyboard.

I mean, just think about if the same things were done to a MacBook, and it was priced at 1599, would it not be pretty sweet?