12/06/2007, 2:15pm, EST
Thursday, December 6thCNBC: Apple sub-notebook for $1500, 3G iPhone in June
Apple's widely rumored subnotebook is close enough to release that the company has priced it, CNBC show host Jim Goldman has said in a financial TV report broadcast today and observed by AppleInsider. The presenter refers to alleged sources close to Apple's manufacturing plants in southeast Asia who have seen the 12-inch notebook and appear to confirm earlier details of the computer, which include a design half as thin as today's systems and the use of slimmer, more efficient flash memory for storage. The device is scheduled for an announcement at Macworld San Francisco in January and will be priced at $1,500, matching the cost of the top-end 13-inch MacBook, according to Goldman. [updated]
An actual ship date for the product is unknown, though the CNBC program claims that production has already begun, suggesting a release at or near the event. The report also said that the screen is 12-inches, contradicting previous reports. Separate sources from Taiwan corroborate the claims, reporting that Apple has validated 13.3-inch LED-lit displays that would both conserve power for and slim down any notebook that would use it, offering the new LCD panel as an ideal candidate for a future ultraportable.
The TV report additionally suggests that remarks by Steve Jobs over the possibility of an iPhone with third-generation (3G) Internet access are pessimistic. Apple's development progress is such that the company will have a 3G iPhone available by late may or early June, Goldman claims while citing anonymous sources.
In keeping with company policy, Apple is said to have declined comment on the rumors.
Filed under: iPhone, computers, Apple
Other story tags: MacBook, rumors, subnotebook
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Ultraportables have historically cost quite a bit; Sony's 11" TZ for example is in the $2000-3000 range. Sony's 12" G1 and G2 ultraportables are also in the $2500-3500 range........ components like SSD hard drives also can ramp that up.
http://www.macplus.net/magplus/IMG/gif/050510_tablet_patent.gif
My money is on the MacPad. Not a MacBook, not an iPod. Touch interface (with optional keyboard), no optical drive, solid-state memory, etc.
Still, it's good to see climbing sales in the computer hardware already in place.
These people can talk as long as it gets Apple some good publicity. It'll be a pity for a subnotebook to cost that high. I was hoping for something in the $1000 range, but if subnotebooks traditionally cost more money than regular notebooks, then so be it.
An $800 tablet sounds nice to me. Something like a scaled up iPod touch. If they can manage a decent virtual keyboard with feedback, I'm sold. It'd make a nice portable web browser/movie viewer sort of thing. Still it wouldn't fit anywhere unless it could be sold to schools in quantity.
I'm hoping they will make it powerful enough to run iMovie so we can go all Mac here at the school I work at...