Apple Computer pulled back the curtain on a new generation of its iBook portable today. Apple CEO, Steve Jobs told media and industry analysts that the new machine "takes design cues" from the Titanium PowerBook G4 during a presentation at the Apple campus in California two days ago. Acknowledgng Apples renewed focus on the education market, he went on to tout the new system as a boon to schools.
Last year Apple sold 545000 iBooks netting US$809m, with combined unit sales of iMac and iBook systems accounting for 52 percent of total Mac unit sales in 1999 and 60 percent in 2000.
This was achieved in spite criticisms that the orginal iBook, with its curvy lines and bold, offbeat colours, looked too radical to be accepted by the mainstream.
The new sober-looking iBook is perhaps a conscious push for greater mainstream acceptance, it is believed. Other than the overhaul of the chassis, the innards and main selling points of the iBook - portable, affordable video and multimedia production - are mostly unchanged. The CPU, for example, has only gained a few megahertz in speed, with connectors and screen size remaining the same.
Clad in a magnesium sub-frame with a pearl white polycarbonate chassis, the new iBook weighs in at less than 2.3 kilograms, nearly 1 kilogram lighter than the previous incarnation, and measures 3.3 centimetres thick. Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, says the new iBook is twice as durable as the previous model.
All configurations include a 500MHz PowerPC G3 processor. Prices start at AU$2,995 for a system equipped with 64MB of RAM and a CD-ROM drive. Three other optical-drive configurations are available; each of which boosts the RAM to 128MB. A system equipped with DVD costs AU$3,395, another AU$300 will get you a CD-RW system, and the line tops out at AU$3,995 for a configuration that packs a combination DVD-ROM and CD-RW drive.
In addition to being thin, the system measures 28.5 by 23 centimetres, which Jobs demonstrated was just 9 percent larger than an 21-by-28 centimetre sheet of paper.
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