Major 3Q portable update?
April 7th 2008
Intel's next-gen consumer Centrino 2 platform will be introduced the first week of June at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan. In order to avoid (*cough*) confusion, they're calling it Montevina (wiki), which is expected to be the core around which Apple redesigns its MacBook and MacBook Pro product lines.
Thereupon,Electronista has some dirt to dish:
• 1066MHz front-side bus
• 2.26 to 2.8 GHz processors
• New chipset, motherboard
• MacBook will gain an Aluminum / stainless steel enclosure
-- 'Thin is in,' designs cues from the iMac, MBA
• Multi-touch trackpad isn't certain for both product lines
• LED-backlit displays might make it into both products
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Regarding the last point, Steve Jobs has promised that Apple will "reduce and eventually eliminate the use of mercury by transitioning to LED backlighting when technically and economically feasible."
The question then is are Apple's Taiwanese / Chinese suppliers making enough relatively new and popular backlit LEDs? Perhaps, but economic downturns often accelerate rather than impede technology transitions (ie companies prefer to sell higher margin items during a time of low volume).
Also, Apple has a track record of aggressively transitioning to new technologies where it sees long-term advantage, and backlit LEDs don't use Mercury and use less electricity (wiki).
A double win? We'll have to wait a couple months to find out for sure, but I'm betting Apple will push the envelope...
What's your take?
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