Katie MarsalGoldman's report on the new sub-notebook, which cited unnamed sources who have supposedly seen the product, mentioned several details first reported by AppleInsider over the past 12 months.
Among them are reports that the device will be 50 percent thinner than the company's existing MacBook Pro, employ NAND flash memory in place of a traditional hard disk drive, and that it will definitively arrive at Macworld.
Although Goldman did not specifically make mention of a manufacturing ramp, captions on CNBC accompanying his commentary suggested that production of the notebook had already begun. In addition, he did contribute one piece of new information, namely that the device is expected to be priced aggressively at approximately $1500. (It should be noted that Goldman referred to the device as sporting a 12-inch screen, but AppleInsider maintains that it will include a 13.3-inch display).
In his report, Goldman also added that Apple's iPod Touch is selling "far better than expected" during the current holiday shopping season, compelling one of the company's Asian manufacturing partners to increase production of the touch-screen-based media player to 5.1 million units for the current quarter.
Finally, Goldman said that while industry watchers have been expecting Apple to introduce a 3G capable iPhone by late 2008, his sources are suggesting that the device will be on store shelves by late May or early June at the latest.
A summary of Goldman's data points follows:
- New 3G iPhone by late May, early June 2008.
- iPod Touch is selling better than expected this holiday season, with one of Apple's manufacturers increasing production to about 5.1 million units this quarter.
- New sub-notebook MacBook Pro.
- New sub-notebook 50 percent thinner.
- New sub-notebook employs flash memory instead of hard drive.
- New sub-notebook to retail for $1500.
A capture of the broadcast is available here.
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140 Comments
Please be less than 13", please be less than 13", please be less than 13", please be less than 13"!
-Clive
In his report, Goldman also added that Apple's iPod Touch is selling "far better than expected" during the current holiday shopping season, compelling one of the company's Asian manufacturing partners to increase production of the touch-screen-based media player to 5.1 million units for the current quarter.
Since the Munster reports Touches selling at 10%+ of iPod sales, if Apple sells 4mil+ Touches, 25 mil iPod sales this quarter seems conservative. I still think 30-35 mil iPods this quarter.
Less than 13" would be awesome. So would an external optical drive to save space when you don't need it. So would a combination of a magnetic HD plus a fast/low-power flash unit.
But 13.3", if sufficiently thin, would meet my needs.
I kind of hope it's more than $1500 just because I want all kinds of pro features packed in, like a real GPU and lit keys
Nagromme, you can kiss any kind of GPU goodbye with a 50% thinner form factor.
3G with 16GB storage sounds good to me. I would sell my current iPhone and buy the new one.
If we can be certain of anything the sub-notebook will not have a dedicated GPU.