My gadget buddy Bob went over the top today and bought a 12" Powerbook to compliment his perfectly good 15" Powerbook. His plan is to take his 12" when traveling internationally which he does a few weeks a year.
Bob saves a 1 pound and 3 ounces. I know every pound helps, but really? It's true that the 12" is a good bit smaller than the 15". It's about 2-1/2" less wide and a little over an inch less high. But the main thing is that I've never even in my most grandiose moments considered getting an extra 12" Powerbook.
And Bob is not rich. He has a fair bit of what he regards as disposable income. I'm thinking there are a lot of Bobs out there. People who love Mac and already have a cool Powerbook and still would spend more for the right stuff.
Apple could make an uber Powerbook and go further into the luxury realm. And there would be lots of buyers.
Maybe that's not the right interpretation for Bob's behavior, though. Instead, perhaps it is that there hasn't been enough upgrading going on in the Powerbook space. The speed isn't going up fast enough to justify a new replacement Powerbook. I've had my Powerbook 15" 1.5 ghz for a year. What am I gonna do? Buy a PB15 1.67?
Perhaps the explanation for Apple's lack of upgrading is the power consumption issue that will soon (next year) be solved by going Intel inside. Whatever it is, I hope Apple gets going soon.
And, of course, there would be 10x more people in line to buy a second Powerbook if it were 2.5 lbs. or less like the mini notebooks that Dell is selling for around $1500. We are ready. Tiger does a great job of synching data on multiple Macs. Oh Steeeve, are you listening?
By the way, the rumor mill is hot with the imminent release of new iBooks. Maybe widescreen. I think we are overdue for widescreen all the way across the line. It would fit the HD theme for the year. Just make them as small as you can. Dump the CD/DVD drive for starters to save some weight. Now that we have 1 gig USB drives and wi-fi, we don't really need a built-in removable drive.
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