Monday, October 23, 2006, 09:00 pm

Some MacBook Pro lead times slip amidst rumors

By AppleInsider Staff

Estimated wait times for Apple Computer's 15-inch MacBook Pro Intel notebooks have been pushed out in some regions as rumors of impending revisions persist ahead of the holiday shopping season.

In particular, the Apple online store in France now lists both 15-inch MacBook Pro models with estimated delivery times of 3 business days, up from the 24 hour lead times listed over the weekend. The 17-inch model continues to reflect immediate availability.

Those findings were joined by several reports Monday, which imply that Cupertino, Calif.-based company is preparing to introduce Core 2 Duo-based MacBook Pro revisions at existing price points as early as Tuesday.

Although AppleInsider has been unable to confirm Monday's reports with any degree of certainty, two new Apple manufacturer part numbers have also been making the rounds alongside reports of MacBook Pro updates within the next week and a half: MA609LL/A and MA610LL/A.

Apple's two existing 15-inch MacBook Pro retail configurations carry manufacturer part numbers MA600LL/A and MA601LL/A. On the other hand, the 17-inch MacBook Pro bears a completely different part number in MA092LL/A.

Unfortunately, the most reliable information on Apple's forthcoming notebook revisions continues to be an earlier published report, which indicated the company has plans of updating all of its existing notebook models with Core 2 Duo chips by the second half of November.