New iBooks 'Any Day Now'

teewurstmann writes "Thinksecret reports that 'sources have confirmed that Apple's consumer laptop will receive a long overdue refresh very soon, possibly as early as this week.' They speculate that the new iBooks might have a widescreen display. I sure hope they are right! I've been waiting to buy one of those suckers for half a year now!"

Comments

Re:Why?

[adamjaskie]

Because it has already been 9 months or so since the last update of the iBook, and Mactels aren't due until 2006. They need something fresh on the market for back to school.

Would be unusual to upgrade before back-to-school.

[alexhmit01]

Apple has "historically" (the last 2-3 years) done upgrades AFTER major buying times. Instead of getting a new model out for "back-to-school" shopping, they run "extra RAM" or other promotions for back-to-school folks to think that they are getting a good deal, sell out their existing inventory at basically full price with the shopping season (schools upgrade labs, parents buy kids computers, etc), then roll out new computers in October... It's annoying, but smart business... Most schools/universities turn over their fiscal year in either August, September, or October, to either roll the school year into one (September), or basically do that but not being trying to do year close-outs during the transition (hence August/October).

That means if they have money left in the budget to spend on the year, they buy the soon-to-be-closed out models at full price, then Apple starts a separate buying frenzy soon after.

For that reason, iPods tend NOT to get upgraded in late October (announce, ship in November) (in time for Christmas shopping, they get upgraded in January).

It's a margin maximizing move.

Now, with Apple's increased market (37% year-to-year increase in Computers, with US Marketshare at 4.5% last quarter), they may have just sold their inventory, so rather than making an old computer, they announce an upgrade and sell it... as I'd imagine as Freescale improves processors, there is no price break on the older ones, so Apple will upgrade, but we shall see.

Alex