January 7th, 2008
Are expectations too high for the Apple subnotebook?
In the calm before the storm that is Macworld Expo, it seems that Apple’s announcement of a thinned-down version of their popular MacBook (or MacBook Pro, depending on who you ask) is a foregone conclusion.
I’m just as guilty as the rest for fanning the fire. Call it wishful thinking, but my share of sources have told me that the Apple subnote exists and that it’s only a question of when Apple decides to announce it.
But are we setting ourselves up for disappointment?
On Saturday MacRumors posted a series of thin MacBook concept images which are sure to make readers drool. (Image above courtesy of kontheur.) Reading around the Web, there’s no shortage of wish lists, predictions, sightings and sourced reports about the elusive subnotebook and it’s got an impossibly long feature list:
- 12-inch screen
- 13-inch screen
- full complement of “pro” ports (HDMI and FW3200 anyone?)
- less ports and dockable
- no optical drive
- external optical drive
- FW optical drive
- Flash/SSD/Hybrid hard drive
- wide trackpad
- multi-touch trackpad
- multi-touch screen
- half the weight
- half the thickness
- new enclosure
- carbon-fiber enclosure (ok, that one’s from me:)
- UPDATE: WiMax
- UPDATE: 3G wireless radio
Either way you look at it, some people are going to be a tad disappointed if said subnotebook only ships with a subset of the above. Everyone take a deep breat, everything will be ok. Besides we’ll know exactly what the new subnote is all about in eight days. Let’s just hope that they decide to release it.
Update: What subnote features did I miss?
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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