Monday, August 27,2007 @ 4:15pm
Concept hints at cues for MacBook subnote
Apple may have already put in place several design cues that would make the frequently predicted Mac subnotebook a reality, well-known Japanese concept designer Isamu Sanada has pointed out through a new concept rendering. Nicknamed the "MacBook lite," the concept would use the tubular structure of Apple's recent Bluetooth keyboard, the LED display backlighting first seen in the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, and either flash memory or a smaller hard drive to reduce the thickness below that of any existing subnotebook. This design could also use a touch-sensitive keyboard to reduce size even further and potentially fit a DVD drive, Sanada says.
While the creator's design is just a prediction and includes cosmetic changes unlikely to find their way into a finished system, it does provide a visual reference for the unified technology that multiple analysts have suggested will arrive in an ultraportable Mac later in 2007 or early 2008.
Apple's prefered CPU maker, Intel, already claims to have illustrated the possibilities of an extra-thin subnotebook through its Metro concept which stripped out the optical drive but used mechanical keys for input, which frequently add significant depth to a notebook computer.
