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PowerBooks Delays
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Reality check
You think Apple is letting you down?
Why did Steve nickname Motorola Scum-o-rola?
It's Motorola's botch-ups with the G4's that have kept us in this mess for so long.
The logic boards for having a G5 powerbook is about 6 months away (better than I thought, I was estimating a year). So Apple will have to go with PowerBook G4's from Motorola, and right now, late September looks like the earliest.
Problem is: Motorola could **** up again. And probably will given their track record.
And Apple is getting pissed. This was supposed to be their Year of the Notebook.
Please don't focus your anger on Apple, the chips should have been in production volume in *MAY*. This means we would have had the new PowerBooks announced at the June WWDC, and shipping in July. Motorola f'ed that up. And they are ***** up again.
However, there is a silver lining:
Steve is getting so pissed with Motorola, that he will do what it takes to make this round of revisions the last one that uses Motorola processors period, even if it means 6 months til the next revision. Which means all products will either go G5 or G3 1GHz+ (IBM).
Support Apple, and keep in mind that Scumorola is the one bending you over a barrel. By now, you could have had your new 15" in your hands already, if they kept their original schedule.
Jaedreth
You think Apple is letting you down?
Why did Steve nickname Motorola Scum-o-rola?
It's Motorola's botch-ups with the G4's that have kept us in this mess for so long.
The logic boards for having a G5 powerbook is about 6 months away (better than I thought, I was estimating a year). So Apple will have to go with PowerBook G4's from Motorola, and right now, late September looks like the earliest.
Problem is: Motorola could **** up again. And probably will given their track record.
And Apple is getting pissed. This was supposed to be their Year of the Notebook.
Please don't focus your anger on Apple, the chips should have been in production volume in *MAY*. This means we would have had the new PowerBooks announced at the June WWDC, and shipping in July. Motorola f'ed that up. And they are ***** up again.
However, there is a silver lining:
Steve is getting so pissed with Motorola, that he will do what it takes to make this round of revisions the last one that uses Motorola processors period, even if it means 6 months til the next revision. Which means all products will either go G5 or G3 1GHz+ (IBM).
Support Apple, and keep in mind that Scumorola is the one bending you over a barrel. By now, you could have had your new 15" in your hands already, if they kept their original schedule.
Jaedreth
If they say,"we will be updating them in mid-september", nobody will buy one between now and then. Why would they announce Powerbooks now? Why should they? Unless they can be immediately available, I don't think Apple will announce them.
Agreed. And the recent change in education pricing further indicates that they're trying to clear inventory.
If, after months of lowered prices, Apple still has inventory to clear, then *few* are buying Powerbooks now and an announcement wouldn't hurt much. On the other hand, it could give folks the leverage to avoid having to switch to PC to get a current model laptop (as I had to do ... if I'd had any word from Apple, my lab could've stalled until September ... it's the uncertainty that kills).
See something like this would scare the pi$$ out of me. The LAST thing we want is a product rushed to market. Rushing = mistakes = defective hardware = Me not being happy with my first Apple laptop
Is this a letdown? DUH. But honestly I wasnt looking for Apple to release another G4 anyways. I want the brass ring. A G5 based 17 PowerBook. Ive already got a grand and a half saved up. By next spring I might be able to pay off the laptop in full at the time of purchase and get a nice down payment on a 23 cinema display Mmmmm wide screen goodness.
Somebody will buy them, someone that needs/wants a laptop now, or people that really don't listen to the 'rumor mill' either are more or less totally clueless. Unless they can be immediately available? What's this? G5? Huh? Oh it'll still be another month before g5's start coming around, yet they were announced. I'm sure there are still people buying the g4's. They SHOULD announce them now because there are people who are going to wait for the new revision and it won't matter so what's the harm in releasing specs/date now?
Announcements
Apple is not going to announce anything that isn't in production.
Again, we would have them in our grubby little hands had Moto not bent us over...
Apple will likely announce them at Apple Expo still, unless Moto f's up so bad, that the powerbooks still aren't in production by then. However, for that to happen, Moto would have to f' up pretty bad. Not that they haven't already.
Keep in mind, it's still going to take 6 months *minimum* for Apple to make a PowerBook G5 simply due to the proper logic boards not being available until then. Which means that if all else goes as planned, we might see them by January.
But not sooner.
So worst case scenario, Steve's gonna be enraged that Moto ruined "the year of the notebook", cost Apple tons of edu sales and quarterly sales, and the new powerbooks may not ship until October or November if Moto screws up bad again. By which point, Apple will cut their losses, cancel the project, and then just work extra hard on the G5 powerbook to try to make it up to its loyal customers, and sue Motorola for breach of contract and lost revenues, kick it out of the AIM license (which Apple *does* have the authority to do by the terms of the license)...
If I'm gonna have to wait until September or perhaps October, I'm just gonna wait til January. Steve would have to make a detraction about this year being the year of the notebook, and then make the same claim next year, and then deliver with a bang...
Of course that's worst case.
Jaedreth
Apple is not going to announce anything that isn't in production.
Again, we would have them in our grubby little hands had Moto not bent us over...
Apple will likely announce them at Apple Expo still, unless Moto f's up so bad, that the powerbooks still aren't in production by then. However, for that to happen, Moto would have to f' up pretty bad. Not that they haven't already.
Keep in mind, it's still going to take 6 months *minimum* for Apple to make a PowerBook G5 simply due to the proper logic boards not being available until then. Which means that if all else goes as planned, we might see them by January.
But not sooner.
So worst case scenario, Steve's gonna be enraged that Moto ruined "the year of the notebook", cost Apple tons of edu sales and quarterly sales, and the new powerbooks may not ship until October or November if Moto screws up bad again. By which point, Apple will cut their losses, cancel the project, and then just work extra hard on the G5 powerbook to try to make it up to its loyal customers, and sue Motorola for breach of contract and lost revenues, kick it out of the AIM license (which Apple *does* have the authority to do by the terms of the license)...
If I'm gonna have to wait until September or perhaps October, I'm just gonna wait til January. Steve would have to make a detraction about this year being the year of the notebook, and then make the same claim next year, and then deliver with a bang...
Of course that's worst case.
Jaedreth
Re: Announcements
This "Year of the Notebook" comment has possibly been the most misinterpreted claim of all time. It meant that this was the year that people were going to buy a lot of notebooks (which has proven to be true), not that "This would be the year that Apple released new notebooks every month".
Even purely looking on the hardware front, I think that the intro of the 12" and 17" pb alone could make the "year of the laptop" claim pass muster.
This "Year of the Notebook" comment has possibly been the most misinterpreted claim of all time. It meant that this was the year that people were going to buy a lot of notebooks (which has proven to be true), not that "This would be the year that Apple released new notebooks every month".
Even purely looking on the hardware front, I think that the intro of the 12" and 17" pb alone could make the "year of the laptop" claim pass muster.
Re: Re: Announcements
I'm typing this from my 12.1 incher I got 3 weeks ago, and its HOT!!!
I get all the cool comments across the street from work (Verizon) in the WiFi cloud in Bryant Park. Plus, I shut up all the PC weenies at work when I open it up, show them the features (BT, WiFi, DVD burn) then tell them I paid $1750.
This IS the year of the laptop. It beats the 550MHz Ti I bought my girlfriend.
This is small and portable enough for NYC and Tokyo, but has the features the iBook lacks.
I'm typing this from my 12.1 incher I got 3 weeks ago, and its HOT!!!
I get all the cool comments across the street from work (Verizon) in the WiFi cloud in Bryant Park. Plus, I shut up all the PC weenies at work when I open it up, show them the features (BT, WiFi, DVD burn) then tell them I paid $1750.
This IS the year of the laptop. It beats the 550MHz Ti I bought my girlfriend.
This is small and portable enough for NYC and Tokyo, but has the features the iBook lacks.
Year of the Notebook
You're right there, MStecker.
Steve is a Visionary and he has seen the trends to come.
He knew this would be the year that Notebooks start being favored over Desktops, because they are finally getting powerful enough to do most things. You only need one workhorse at home to do all the high end stuff, but I'm sure every one in the family wants their own portable.
And it was a fabulous release, back in January. The 12" and 17" are awesome computers. However, Apple had more planned for us, more bang and shock and awe, and now Motorola has f'ed it up.
The PC market is taking advantage of Motorola having Apple over a barrel. I see new designs announced on TheRegister constantly for the latest PC, and their specs are totally kicking Apple's aging product line... Doesn't mean their support, service, and quality of product are anywhere near Apple's, they aren't.
However, PC users don't know/care about that, they want it cheap. And they want it fully loaded. And I've seen plenty of notebooks that are cheaper than ours that have features ours don't. We still have other features they don't have, period, but for the most part, PC users don't really care about that...
Just like black entertainers like the Jackson 5 back in their day, they had to be profoundly better than their white counterparts to even be noticed, let alone recognized or accepted. I'm not a Michael Jackson fan, but at the time, they did turn a lot of heads.
The same goes for Apple. The entire industry is tainted against Apple, and Apple has to do better than the competition at a lower cost to even be noticed, and Motorola is majorly ***** Apple's plans.
I'm using a Dell running WinXPPro right now, and believe me, I wish I was at home using my iBook (16 VRAM) running 10.2.6.
It's my only Mac. And it will be until I can get myself a G5. I will wait for G5. However, I'd rather have another portable.
Jaedreth
You're right there, MStecker.
Steve is a Visionary and he has seen the trends to come.
He knew this would be the year that Notebooks start being favored over Desktops, because they are finally getting powerful enough to do most things. You only need one workhorse at home to do all the high end stuff, but I'm sure every one in the family wants their own portable.
And it was a fabulous release, back in January. The 12" and 17" are awesome computers. However, Apple had more planned for us, more bang and shock and awe, and now Motorola has f'ed it up.
The PC market is taking advantage of Motorola having Apple over a barrel. I see new designs announced on TheRegister constantly for the latest PC, and their specs are totally kicking Apple's aging product line... Doesn't mean their support, service, and quality of product are anywhere near Apple's, they aren't.
However, PC users don't know/care about that, they want it cheap. And they want it fully loaded. And I've seen plenty of notebooks that are cheaper than ours that have features ours don't. We still have other features they don't have, period, but for the most part, PC users don't really care about that...
Just like black entertainers like the Jackson 5 back in their day, they had to be profoundly better than their white counterparts to even be noticed, let alone recognized or accepted. I'm not a Michael Jackson fan, but at the time, they did turn a lot of heads.
The same goes for Apple. The entire industry is tainted against Apple, and Apple has to do better than the competition at a lower cost to even be noticed, and Motorola is majorly ***** Apple's plans.
I'm using a Dell running WinXPPro right now, and believe me, I wish I was at home using my iBook (16 VRAM) running 10.2.6.
It's my only Mac. And it will be until I can get myself a G5. I will wait for G5. However, I'd rather have another portable.
Jaedreth
Re: Re: Costing apple money...
Maybe apple hasn't said that because they can't guarantee anything about the new books. There's no telling when or even if motorola can get things sorted out in a reasonable time. It certainly doesn't look like it. And as for G5 powerbooks... sorry guys, it's simply not going to happen as soon as everyone thinks. january? no. next july? MAYBE. That's the best case scenario. remember, there aren't even sufficient chips yet to satisfy orders of G5 desktops which were introduced over a month ago....
Maybe apple hasn't said that because they can't guarantee anything about the new books. There's no telling when or even if motorola can get things sorted out in a reasonable time. It certainly doesn't look like it. And as for G5 powerbooks... sorry guys, it's simply not going to happen as soon as everyone thinks. january? no. next july? MAYBE. That's the best case scenario. remember, there aren't even sufficient chips yet to satisfy orders of G5 desktops which were introduced over a month ago....
Re: Audio
The guy from Fischerspooner swears by his G3 iBook. I'm pretty sure he's done almost every Fischerspooner song with it.
The guy from Fischerspooner swears by his G3 iBook. I'm pretty sure he's done almost every Fischerspooner song with it.
Originally posted by crees!
Well just think about it this way. By the time the new 15" PB's come out they'll be on their 1st, or maybe 2nd revision.
Hurray! Didn't think about that.
It is a totally different matter with the G5. If Apple announces faster powerbooks while it is still selling slower powerbooks, no one will buy the already outdated Powerbooks. (duh). The New Powermacs are a totally new architecture. Completely different scenario. Lets say Apple announces that the current G5 line will be replaced, a month after release with a line that goes like this: low end: 1.8, Middle, 2.0, High, 2.2. Almost everyone would wait to buy the new (lower priced) 1.8 GHz machines instead of buying a 1.6 GHz machine now and getting a machine that will be EOL'd in a month. And BTW, people are buying the G4's because they don't need the power of the G5, and the prices are lower. Therefore, I guess we can agree to disagree.
-Capt Underpants