Widescreen iBook rumours gain weight
By Tony Smith
The Register
Published Monday 20th June 2005 10:41 GMT
Asustek, not Quanta, will produce Apple's upcoming widescreen iBook
laptop Mac.
So claims a report in Taiwan's Economic Daily News, which adds
weight to rumours published in April that the Mac maker is
preparing a consumer-oriented widescreen notebook.
To date, Apple's widescreen offerings have been restricted to its
PowerBook G4 line-up, but as demand for widescreen notebooks
continues to grow at the lower-end of the consumer laptop market,
it was always likely Apple would eventually ship a widescreen
iBook.
In April, sources from Taiwan's contract manufacturer community
claimed Apple had signed Quanta to make the 14in portable computer,
with a view to a Q4 ship date. The claim was more plausible than
earlier suggestions that Apple was about to announce PowerBooks
based on the G5 processor. The company's shift from the PowerPC
architecture to x86 chips suggests that any plan it might have had
to produce a G5 notebook will not now come to fruition.
Today's EDN report claims Asustek beat Quanta to the IBook
contract. Asustek already produces Apple's 12.1in iBook and
PowerBook, and has been rumoured to have been selected to produce a
larger, 15.4in widescreen iBook next year. Quanta builds a number
of Apple's other PowerBook notebooks.
The iBook line was last refreshed in October 2004, while the
PowerBook family had a makeover in January this year. ®
