Apple to Refresh PowerBooks in Paris

A month later Apple's developer conference had come and gone and new PowerBooks remained as nothing more than hearsay. By mid-July sales of the current line of PowerBooks had slumped considerably in anticipation of the overdue revisions. The bi-annual Macworld trade show arrived shortly thereafter and high expectations once again turned to disappointment among eager PowerBook buyers.

With little to no explanation from the Apple, and frustration building among avid consumers, sources began to paint a muggy picture of Apple microchip supplier, Motorola. As it was reported, problems with the chip-maker's 0.13 micron process were resulting in extremely poor yields of the high-end PowerPC 7457 G4 processor, code-named 'Apollo 7.' Unfortunately for Apple, the PowerPC 7457 family of semiconductors were to power the entire line of new PowerBook G4s.

By late August the situation fared no better. Apple's two largest hardware distributors showed an almost completely depleted inventory of all current PowerBook G4 configurations. The computer company had missed out on potential millions in educational and back-to-school sales and their retailers were growing anxious. To levitate some concerns — during the last week of August — Apple told some of its select retail partners to expect new PowerBooks in early to mid September.

It wasn't until last week that sources began mumbling the first bits of promising information on the subject. According to an AppleInsider source, Apple's chip supplier had finally accumulated an ample supply of the faster PowerPC 7457 mobile chips. This news was soon echoed by French Mac news publisher, MacBidouille. According to the site, success rates on high-end PowerPC 7457 production improved this month with Motorola producing 30,000 and 20,000 units of the 1.25GHz and 1.3GHz chips, respectively. However, since Motorola's engagement with Apple sets a pre-defined price on microprocessors, they are currently eating a loss of approximately $125 per functional unit.

Nevertheless, AppleInsider has positively confirmed with multiple sources that the new species of PowerBook G4s will make their debut on September 16th during Apple Expo in Paris, France. While the confirmation has been specific to a remodeled 15" PowerBook, it's expected that the entire portable line will be refreshed. This information also corroborates last week's report stating all PowerBook orders would be full-filled within the two week period.

According to reliable sources, demo versions of these new PowerBooks are currently being produced and shipped to the site of the expo. Upon arrival, the laptops will be met by Apple engineers who will update their system software to the recently finalized version of Mac OS X 10.2.7 Blackrider.

Previous rumors put the new 15" PowerBook in an aluminum enclosure with ports on the sides, a backlit keyboard, USB 2.0, FireWire 800, and a 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 processor. The 17" configuration is said to gain USB 2.0 and a 1.3GHz PowerPC G4 processor. It will be interesting to see if Motorola's current yields have allowed Apple to meet these original specifications.

Meanwhile, the computer company is also readying updates to their consumer iBooks. The new units will sport USB 2.0 and AirPort Extreme support, sources said. Additionally, the PowerPC 750FX flavor of IBM's G3 processor allows for the implementation of a 200MHz 60x bus that could potentially keep the portables running Apple's latest OS offerings at more than respectable speeds for a fraction of the cost of the PowerPC G4. Further information pertaining to the official release of these iBooks, as well as their processor generation, is currently unconfirmed.