NEW iBook!!!! WWDC

[serpicolugnut]

When Apple will update the iBook is a good question. I would tend to lean towards a MWNY July release, but keep this in mind. The iBook is aimed at the education market. The education market typically makes their purchase decisions in May before the summer. So, although a release at MWNY would make more sense overall, it would mean the revision would miss the school buying cycle, which could cost them sales. So, I would tend to lean towards a WWDC release, or shortly thereafter.

Apple really has broken with it's former method of announcing products at major events. Now it seems only to save the "big" new items for these events, and revisions and upgrades tend to get released when needed, which is a very good thing.

[doofy10]

So if I'm planning on buying a new iBook for college next fall, should I do it now or should I wait till June??
-Doofy

[dricci]

Originally posted by doofy10
So if I'm planning on buying a new iBook for college next fall, should I do it now or should I wait till June??
-Doofy

If you don't need one any time soon, I'd wait for sure.

[Koelling]

That eMac took me totally by surprise. On one hand I like it when things are introduced when they are ready, not delaying anything so they can stay on top of the curve (or not too far behind, depending on your view of Apple right now)

On the other hand, hype sells. My Mac User Group was discussing the G5 over pizza tonight and some thought San Fransisco, some thought NY. One particularly cynical member said they should just get it out as soon as possible so that people start buying once again. I think that a G5 processor will sell best if released at a show (assuming they have enough being made so ordering is minimum).

So the point of my round about tangent is that while it would be nice if they released the iBook at WWDC, or even on any sunny day in July, they are just staying on top, not getting the units sold. For sake of the books a conference release would be more logical.

[Jadey]

With the new "e" prefix instead of the "i" Apple should come out with some small device for education that can be easily networked, that comes in some funky colour, and small, but bigger than a PDA. They could call it an "emate" or something. It would sell like hotcakes!

[fryke]

i've got an eMate 300 right here with me. great machine, too slow though. but for schools... imagine: iBook 12" but a bit smaller still. maybe a 10" screen 800*600. no internal drives, only AirPort, FireWire and USB connections. maybe a reflective display (like some of the PDAs have now), so you can turn off the back/front-light out in the sun. this thing might be an awesome machine, although 800*600 is a bit too small already for mac os x, right? and 1024*768 on a screen smaller than the iBooks is too small.

[TommyWillB]

Originally posted by Valrus
Maybe there'll be an eBook!

Nah.

-the valrus

Ha ha!

Remember the eMate? <edit>(Oh!... Jadey beat me to that one. )</edit>

IMHO we will never see any more Apple products with names of "e-anything" unless marketing suddenly decicdes the "e" stands for "eXtasy" instead of "electronic". but if we are talking about eXtacy, they should use "x" instead of "e".

So maybe it will be an xBook?

[TommyWillB]

Originally posted by Jadey
With the new "e" prefix instead of the "i" Apple should come out with some small device for education that can be easily networked, that comes in some funky colour, and small, but bigger than a PDA. They could call it an "emate" or something. It would sell like hotcakes!

Actually I think they should make a small console machine with no hard drive. I could boot from CD's to play games, etc. I think they should call it the pippin.