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发表于 2005-12-23 21:50:15| 字数 5,648| - 瑞士
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BS绿茶不追根究底乱转帖子的行为，嘿嘿，$200的ibook，估计连屏幕的成本都不够，这里是原贴，大家对比着看看 
EXCLUSIVE: Apple Planning Intel-Ready iBook Debut for January
By Ryan Katz, Senior Editor
November 17, 2005 - Apple is planning to release its first entry-level iBook laptops with Intel processors next January at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, highly reliable sources have confirmed to Think Secret.
It is not known exactly what processors or price points the new models will debut at, but it is thought Apple will expand the iBook line with one additional model and will lower prices—in some cases possibly $200 or more—to entice current Windows users and prove to the market it will be more competitive with the likes of Dell, Gateway, HP and Sony.
Those behind the report of Intel-ready iBooks are the same sources responsible for past reports of the Mac mini and photo iPod, first reported by Think Secret.
Those sources have told Think Secret to not rule out the possible release of other Intel-based Macs at Macworld Expo, but that it is more likely the initial release of products with the new processor will be consumer-based products only and not professional, high-end lines, such as PowerBooks and towers, as some Web sites have reported.
Apple will almost certainly tap Intel's forthcoming Yonah processor for the iBooks, a successor to the company's Pentium M. It is unknown whether Apple will go with a dual-core version of the processor, slated for release in January, or a single-core version, which Intel announced in August would be delivered shortly after the dual-core version. The dual-core Yonah chip could very likely deliver performance greater than Apple's current G4-based PowerBooks.
Rolling out a consumer system like the iBook as the first Intel Mac also makes sense from a software development standpoint. Developers such as Adobe are not expected to have their applications ready as Universal Binaries by the first quarter, meaning current PowerPC versions will have to run under Rosetta on Intel systems. Rosetta translates PowerPC instructions on the fly to x86 instructions, allowing PowerPC programs to run on Intel Macs. The process is said to impact performance by about 30 percent versus a native binary, however. iBook customers, with presumably less demanding needs, should be more forgiving of this performance hit compared to Apple's Pro customers.
Word that Apple will move up the debut of Intel-ready Macs by some six months from their previous announcement and that one of the first models will be the iBook is not surprising to some analysts who see the entry-level laptop as the perfect jumping off point for Apple to show how aggressive they will be with the less expensive, best selling microprocessor.
"This is not a total surprise to me," said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a computer industry intelligence firm. "It would be a very Apple-like thing to do to come out with Intel-based Macs early and to accelerate the schedule and surprise people."
"It makes a lot of sense to first introduce Intel chips into Apple consumer notebooks," commented analyst Joe Wilcox of Jupiter Research. "I see the potential risks as being less and the potential benefits being much greater."
But no matter what the configurations, some analysts agree the new iBooks must be priced aggressively—much lower than current iBooks, which start at $999 for an iBook with a 12.1-inch display and DVD/CD-RW drive.
"This Christmas, we're going to be seeing (in the U.S.) $400 and $450 (Windows-based) notebooks," Mr. Kay said. "I don't expect Apple to go that far down in price and instead use their innovation to demand a higher cost, but they must lower prices to stay competitive and grab Windows users."
How competitive? Analyst Stephen Baker at NPD Intelect believes Apple must come in some $300 lower for an entry-level model.
"For Apple, they need a nicely configured $699 notebook to be competitive at the entry level," he said. "They can play up the value of the bundled software and Mac OS X and really have a strong case for consumers to buy their product.
"The consumer notebook market is at this point probably the most intensely competitive section of the PC market," Mr. Baker commented. "Prices have just dropped like a stone. We're seeing people like Acer and Lenovo jumping in and really taking huge opportunities. Wal-Mart is looking at it as a big growth opportunity. All the big players have their eye on the consumer notebook business. It makes great sense for Apple to be doing the same thing."
Mr. Baker believes that if Apple is genuinely interested in raising its U.S. market share of laptops from 7 percent in October, "they must realize the cost of doing business is around $700."
Despite a drop of more than 1 percent from Apple's 8.3 percent laptop market share a year earlier, Mr. Baker said the Mac makers portable business was up 50 percent from a year ago. "But keep in mind the rest of Apple's Windows competitors were up as a whole over 50 percent as well," he said.
Mr. Wilcox also believes Apple will lower prices to stay competitive, but not as much as some might think.
"I don't see a need for Apple to go much below $1,000 unless they are going to offer a really low-end iBook with really low-end features," he said. "Cheap (Windows-based) notebooks are just that. Cheap. They have low-resolution, small hard drives, little memory. Apple doesn't need to compete there. They could keep the price the same and offer more. If you're going to lower prices (on iBooks), then lower them on the high end, and add a third, higher-end model that comes at $1,299."
At present Apple offers a PowerPC G4 model running at 1.33GHz with a 12.1-inch display, 512MB of memory, CD-RW drive and 40GB hard drive for US$999. Its second model has a PowerPC G4 running at 1.42GHz with a 14.1-inch display, 512MB of RAM, SuperDrive and 60GB hard drive for $1,299.
Mr. Baker also agrees that two iBook models are not sufficient and that they would probably add an additional model to spread out pricing. He also expressed concerned that whatever iBook models Apple introduces, the screen size might not be big enough to compete with others in the Windows world, even at less than $999.
"Consumer notebook buyers don't want less than 15-inches, " he said. "Even if Apple came in at lower prices on a 12.1-inch display, that might not be enough to sway many buyers. But realistically, I don't see Apple going that low in price for that big a display."
At present, Apple laptops cost some 40 percent more than Windows-based models in various configurations, Mr. Kay said. |
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