Apple

Jony Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, was one of several Apple executives to share the stage with CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

Could Apple be getting closer to a leadership transition?

That's what Sam Diaz at our sister site ZDNet thinks. In this video, he argues that Apple's decision to have CEO Steve Jobs share the spotlight at Tuesday's notebook event with other executives such as COO Tim Cook and Jony Ive, senior vice president of design, means that the company is trying to showcase those executives ahead of an eventual departure by Jobs, whose health has been the subject of much bottom-feeding speculation this year.

I wasn't at the event, having flown back East to attend the wedding of a close friend. But I've been to many Apple events over the past several years, and Diaz fails to note that it's not unusual to see other Apple executives onstage with Jobs.

Scott Forstall, head of iPhone software, has played prominent roles in major Apple keynotes dating back to 2006. Jobs often defers to other executives during questions posed by shareholders at the company's annual meeting. And Schiller has been a source of comic relief for years during Jobs' speeches, playing Lou Costello to Jobs' Bud Abbott.

It's been an oft-repeated canard this year about Apple: because the company has not shared its succession plans with the world, it must not have any idea what it will do if Jobs becomes unable or unwilling to run the company. But it's hard to believe that a company that takes its products so seriously, run by a CEO as meticulous as Jobs, has not developed a plan for Apple in the post-Jobs era.

Apple may have decided to showcase its non-Jobs executives at its events in order to assure people that the company is about more than one man. But the practice of sharing the stage is nothing unusual, no matter what color shirt Cook wears onstage.

Nothing is much of a secret about Apple events these days.

Turns out, a high percentage of the rumors and leaked images of the notebooks announced Tuesday were right on target: The price drop, the aluminum casing across the entire product line, the new unibody construction process, the black bezeled displays were all mentioned on Apple rumor sites and gadget blogs before CEO Steve Jobs took the stage Tuesday.

But, as would be expected, several of the most widely circulated pieces of speculation proved false. In brief comments after his keynote speech, Jobs did something he doesn't usually do, and clarified what isn't on his company's immediate notebook road map. Three of them are some of the most oft-repeated rumors of future Apple products. Here's why touch screens, Blu-ray, and Netbooks are not what Apple has in store for us anytime soon.

Blu-ray
Perhaps Jobs' most puzzling or awkward comment during Tuesday's event was regarding what is assumed to be the standard in high-definition packaged media. Regarding Blu-ray, Jobs described it as "a bag of hurt." He expanded, saying that he meant that not from a consumer experience perspective, but that the licensing is expensive and complex. Apple apparently plans to take a wait-and-see approach after Blu-ray has been in the market awhile.

Though Jobs clearly left some wiggle room in his answer, don't expect to see a Blu-ray drive in an Apple notebook anytime soon. If you're disappointed, blame iTunes. Apple is in the middle stages of building a video download business, and it's clear that the company wants its customers to use iTunes to watch high-definition videos, not revert to packaged media, where it can't get a slice of the revenue as it does while selling or renting digital content.

While Blu-ray is certainly the dominant high-definition format, it's still not the dominant packaged media format. DVD sales are tapering off, but still haven't completely disappeared. By the time that happens, it's assumed digital downloading for videos will become more common. In the interregnum, the major Hollywood studios are hedging their bets, some offering titles as a free download once you buy the title on disc.

But not Apple. In fact, Blu-ray's presence in an Apple computer is pretty much a moot point, according to Steve Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD Group.

"They're (Apple) not trying to be everything to everyone like Netflix or Blockbuster. They're going to keep trying to deliver economy around digital downloads. I still question why anybody would question or care whether they'd have Blu-ray," he said.

Touch-screen notebook
Jobs also seemingly put the kibosh on any touch-screen Mac, another rumor that rears its head every once in awhile. When asked Tuesday, Jobs said that while they've looked at touch screens for notebooks, "it hasn't made a lot of sense to us," he said.

Apple is one of the leaders in implementing touch screens in its devices--the iPhone, the iPod Touch--and using them in innovative ways. And while Jobs admitted that his company has looked into it, it's passing on making a notebook version of Hewlett-Packard's TouchSmart PC, the desktop with a touch-screen monitor.

While it would be innovative to put one in a notebook, it's not really likely from any major computer makers at this point, according to Charles Smulders, Gartner's managing vice president.

"We're seeing some vendors using touch screens, but it's typically on the desktop form factor not on a notebook," he said. HP's TouchSmart, for instance, is designed to be used in a room like the kitchen, where interactions are more brief. Long-term or all-day use generally requires input devices like a keyboard.

Netbook
And though many Apple fans were hoping for a Netbook, a cheaper, underfeatured notebook, from the company Tuesday, they'll have to wait longer. When asked about that Tuesday, Jobs said Netbooks are still a nascent market and that "we'll see how it goes."

While he certainly left some room to change his mind, he didn't sound excited about the category at all. And the company might be timid about getting into the Netbook market since its attempts at the smaller, cheaper Mac Mini weren't that well received, said Baker of NPD.

"They did a Nettop (a desktop version of a Netbook) and it wasn't particularly successful, if you think about the Mac Mini as a precursor to Nettops," he said.

On one hand, it does make sense for Apple to leave Netbooks out of its Mac lineup if just to preserve its brand image. (Just look at the reaction to Apple lowering the price of its lowest-end MacBook to $999.) Netbooks are based almost purely on price, and Apple doesn't make its product decisions on price points, but rather features.

Any lower price point would be likely be a big hit to the quality of experience Apple tries to deliver, and its margins. (While Apple is catching up in the U.S., it's still far outpaced in units shipped by HP, Dell, and Acer, which can afford a side business of making smaller, cheaper Netbooks.)

But while Jobs' comments Tuesday don't sound too promising, he certainly left plenty of room to change his mind. After all, he's right about Netbooks being very new. And while they're selling relatively well right now, there's not a lot of innovation in the sector. As the market matures, there's plenty of room for Apple to jump in, according to Smulders.

"It's such an early developing market; there's a long way to go before the optimum form factor and user experience is delivered," he said.

For complete coverage of the Apple notebook news, see "Apple polishes up its MacBook line."

CUPERTINO, Calif.--At Apple's headquarters here at 10 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, the company held an event focused on its laptops. A redesigned MacBook and MacBook Pro were announced, as well as upgraded graphics. And as expected, Apple is releasing its first sub-$1,000 notebook. Here is how it all unfolded.

Tim Cook talks sales.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

9:57 a.m.: We're here, and the event should start momentarily.

10 a.m.: Steve Jobs enters, wearing the standard outfit. He says he's going to cover the "State of the Mac." Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook takes the stage to do so.

10:01 a.m.: The Mac lineup today is clean, focused, and successful, Cook says. Mac adoption is growing at two to three times the pace of the PC market because Apple's computers are "superior."

10:03 a.m.: He's taking us through features of the Mac. Leopard, iLife, iWork, and compatibility. Talking about Boot Camp, Cook says seeing Windows on a Mac "sends shivers up my spine," but that the fact is, "it's working." The fourth reason he gives for why Macs are selling: Vista. It hasn't lived up to what Microsoft hoped it would and has "opened doors" to switch to the Mac, he says.

10:06 a.m.: Cook talks up the "I'm a Mac" ads, and he shows us the one in which the PC is dressed as a king and sitting in a throne. Half of the Macs sold in Apple's retail stores are to first-time Mac buyers, according to Cook.

Cook talks about the use of Macs at universities.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:07 a.m.: Cook says the Mac has outgrown the industry in 14 of the last 15 quarters, the exception being the quarter in which Apple switched to Intel chips.

10:10 a.m.: Cook finishes up his discussion of the Mac's momentum. Steve Jobs is back on stage. First, he says he wants to talk about a new way to build notebooks in new ways. He brings up senior vice president of design, Jonathan Ive, to talk about it.

10:12 a.m.: Ive says Apple has had a "breakthrough" in designing and building notebooks. He's going to show us first how Apple builds the current 15-inch MacBook Pro. A significant challenge in building thin and light computers is making it durable, he says. The aluminum casing is just a small part of the structure. It's more about the magnesium die-cast frame on the inside.

Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of design.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:14 a.m.: Then there are stiffening plates, more internal frames that support the trackpad and keyboard. The current MacBook Pro is great, he says, but Apple has been looking for a better way of making it for years. It all came together with the way it made the MacBook Air, he says.

10:17 a.m.: But the design is more relevant than to just the MacBook Air, he says, as he leaves the stage. Steve's up again, ready to talk about new notebook graphics. The Nvidia rumors were true.

10:18 a.m.: Nvidia combines chipset and graphics processors all in one part. They were originally designed for the desktop. Apple says it asked months ago if they could be used in a notebook. The resulting chip is called the GeForce 9400M.

Jobs says new graphics chips are coming to its notebooks.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:19 a.m.: "It's an amazing chip," Jobs says. Seventy percent of the die area is GPU; the rest is chipset. There are 16 parallel graphic cores, and it delivers 54 gigaflops of graphics performance. It's a "stunner," he says. It will provide five times faster graphics than the integrated graphics chips Apple has been using, he says.

Compared to graphics shipping in the MacBook Pro, they are now 55 percent better in 3D graphics performance. "This is huge," according to Jobs.

10:21 a.m.: There is a new trackpad for notebooks too; a multitouch glass trackpad Apple has been working on for a long time. It'll provide a 39 percent larger tracking area, he says. The entire trackpad is the button. You can add multiple buttons in the preferences section. He's going to take us through the new gestures added. Single, two-finger, three-finger, and now four-finger gestures are now supported, enabling users to get into Expose and switch applications.

New MacBooks.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:22 a.m.: Today, Apple is indeed introducing a new MacBook Pro. Slightly thinner, it has a black bezel and an LED display. It is thin, with a rounded lid and all connectors on one side, as well as black keys.

The new MacBook Pro gets aluminum casing.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)

10:24 a.m.: It is all aluminum, using the new process. Mini DisplayPort will be in all Apple's notebooks now. The new process means that there are half the major structural parts to the MacBook Pro. He's bringing out the unibody, and it's being passed to the audience. We have to give them back, he says.

10:24 a.m.: Yep, it's light.

10:26 a.m.: There is a silence as everyone in the audience gets a turn to touch the keyboard enclosure. It's show and tell. Steve wants everyone to hurry this up, he says.

10:27 a.m.: The GeForce 9400M will be used in the new MacBook Pro, but it's not the best Apple could do, Jobs says, adding that the GeForce 9600MGT provides "state of the art" mobile graphics, with 32 parallel graphics cores and 120 gigaflops. The are both in the MacBook Pro now.

The new unibody enclosure is passed around.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:30 a.m.: The Mini DisplayPort is the new industry standard, Jobs says. A solid-state drive is now available in the MacBook Pro. One can take the battery out and the hard drive out, and put in a solid-state drive, making it totally accessible.

10:32 a.m.: It's thin, at 0.95 inches, and it comes in two models. One, at $1,999, is 15.4 inches, with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and the Nvidia chipsets he discussed. The second model is $2,499. It has a 2.53GHz processor, 6MB of L2 cache, 4GB of memory, and a 128GB solid-state drive. Both models are shipping today and will be in stores tomorrow.

New MacBook features.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:34 a.m.: There are no toxic chemicals in the new MacBook Pro, he says. No mercury, arsenic, or PVC. It includes more recyclable materials, and the packaging will be cut down by 32 percent.

10:35 a.m.: There is also a new MacBook Air. It will also have a GeForce 9400M, which is four times faster than the current processor. It has a 120GB hard drive now and a 128GB solid-state drive as an option. It also will have a Mini DisplayPort. The standard model is $1,799, and $2,499 will buy you the 1.86GHz processor and a bigger SSD. It will be available in November.

The new MacBook Air.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:36 a.m.: There is also a new cinema display. At 24 inches, it has LED backlighting. It's Apple's first, with the same black bezel as the new MacBook Pro.

10:37 a.m.: It has a single cable with three branches, a MagSafe power adapter, a Mini DisplayPort, and a USB cable. It'll be $899, released in November. "Of course, that 'one more thing' is the MacBook."

10:38 a.m.: It's the best-selling Mac ever, Jobs says. Apple is reducing the entry price to $999, selling its first sub-$1,000 Mac notebook. It'll also have a metal enclosure, faster graphics, and an LED display.

And the price drops below $1,000.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:39 a.m.: Introducing a new-generation MacBook. It has an all-new design, with the black-bezel glass display like the MacBook Pro and Cinema Display. It also has a multitouch glass trackpad and Mini DisplayPort. With the same construction, it uses 42 percent of the structural parts as are included in the previous model, he says. It also uses the 9400M graphics processing unit.

10:41 a.m.: The new MacBook has a five-hour battery life, and it is also made without toxins such as arsenic, PVC, and mercury. The new models: $1,299 for a 13-incher with a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of DDR3 memory, 9400M graphics, and a 160GB hard drive. The $1,599, 13-inch model has a 320GB hard drive.

As expected, Nvdia chips will be used.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)

10:41 a.m.: Jobs is going to show us a video now. It begins with Ive talking about the MacBook's design and engineering, with more of the same they've already discussed here today.

10:45 a.m.: The video is over, and Steve's back up. Now there will be a Q&A with Jobs, Phil Schiller, and Tim Cook, but they're reporting earnings a week from today, so they cannot answer any questions about the current quarter. Jobs also gives his blood pressure: 110 over 70.

The MacBook keyboard.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:53 a.m.: The audience claps and laughs. "That's all we'll talk about with Steve's health today. Want to see (his blood pressure) higher? Just ask him more questions," he says, talking about himself in the third person. More laughs.

10:55 a.m.: Steve says Apple will be the only computer company using Nvidia's new chips for a while. Apple didn't go with HDMI because it can't drive the 30-inch high-resolution display, he says. That's why it went with DisplayPort.

10:56 a.m.: Regarding the Blu-ray Disc high-definition format: "It's a bag of hurt," says Jobs. Not from a consumer point of view, but rather because the licensing of the technologies is so complex. We'll wait till things settle down, and Blu-ray really takes off in the marketplace, he says.

Jobs' blood pressure. That'll be all about his health, he says.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

10:56 a.m.: Schiller takes this opportunity to plug iTunes.

10:58 a.m.: There is a question about the new MacBook's weight. It weighs 4.5 pounds instead of 5 pounds.

A QA session for Jobs and co.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

11 a.m.: Apple is sticking with glass screens for a while. No matte screens, Jobs says. Glass provides crisper images and brighter colors.

11:03 a.m.: Netbooks are a nascent market, Jobs says: "We'll see how it goes."

What about touch screens on laptops, someone wants to know. "Hasn't made a lot of sense to us," Steve says.

And that's the end. Thanks for reading. Make sure to stay tuned for CNET's analysis and hands-on, as well as first reviews of the new products.

For complete coverage of the Apple notebook news, see "Apple polishes up its MacBook line."

CNET will be live-blogging the event from Apple HQ in Cupertino, Calif.

(Credit: Apple)

It's that time again: Apple has invited reporters down to its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters for a special notebooks event, which means CNET News will be there to live-blog the whole thing.

The fun starts at 10 a.m. PDT Tuesday at this link.

Apple says the focus of the event will be on notebooks. A redesigned MacBook and MacBook Pro are all but assured, but there are likely to be some other surprises too. Will Apple opt for Nvidia chipsets? Will there finally be a Mac sold for less than $1,000?

Come back here Tuesday morning to find out. Plus, later in the day, we'll have some analysis on what Apple does announce, and CNET's laptop experts, Dan Ackerman and Michelle Thatcher, will have a First Look and hands-on video.

As with any Apple event, there's plenty of rumor and speculation to go around. The lead-up to Tuesday's event in which "the spotlight turns to notebooks," according to the event invitation, has been no different.

The Mac maker has invited journalists down to its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters to get a look at its new round of notebooks Tuesday morning. But what exactly Apple CEO Steve Jobs will unveil is anyone's guess.

We have a few clues in the form of purported "spy shots," or leaked photos, of the redesigned notebooks that have made the rounds on blogs, but of course those should be regarded with skepticism. Still, the consensus is that we'll see a major redesign to the MacBook lineup which is more than 2 years old.

There could be some interesting interior changes too. On Sunday, a new round of rumors cropped up that Apple may be switching to Nvidia's graphics chipset, while maintaining Intel CPUs.

It's been rumored for months that the lower-end MacBook will take on aluminum casing, which would make sense since it's already used for the MacBook Pro, but we could also see a move to LED (light-emitting diode) backlighting as Apple has already has done with the MacBook Air.

Both new chipsets and new casing could increase the cost of building the MacBook and MacBook Pro. But on the other end of the spectrum, Apple might be showing off a lower-priced option, too.

There has been a lot of chatter lately that Apple will offer a notebook for $800. The prevailing opinion is that it would be a completely new model, not a price-reduction to a current product--possibly an under-featured version of the current MacBook model, sans the optical drive or less RAM, smaller hard drive, and fewer ports while retaining the look of the current MacBook as well. But it's just a guess. That price tag, though, would put Apple in the same price range as a wide variety of notebooks from every other major PC maker.

Though we're clearly in the midst of an economic meltdown, it would be odd timing for a company that has never felt the need to compete on price with the likes of Dell and Hewlett-Packard, a practice that arguably hasn't been hurting Apple.

Apple's prices on the MacBook, for which it charges $1,099 for the current base model, aren't drastically different than similarly featured notebooks from Dell (like the XPS 1330 series) or HP (like the Pavilion dv3500t series), though market leaders Dell and HP have traditionally offered more customizable options than Apple, and often for cheaper. For example, HP charges $75 to upgrade 4GB of memory from 2GB. Apple charges $200.

Steadily gaining market share
Despite that, Apple has continued to outgrow those two in sales. It increased sales by 38 percent in the U.S. during the second quarter of this year, compared with U.S. leader Dell's 11.5 percent growth, and HP's 6 percent, according to IDC.

And while Apple still lags far behind those two in market share, it's steadily making gains.

For those reasons, a cheaper notebook at this point doesn't make a whole lot of sense, since people have clearly been willing to shell out for Apple's current notebook lineup at $1,099 and up.

At the same time, there is a precedent here for Apple offering a lower-end, less-expensive alternative model in a product category. Take the iPod. Apple started with the first iPod in 2001 at $399 for 5GB; the company then expanded the line to include the 4GB iPod Mini three years later at $250; then in 2005 a $199 2GB Nano came along, as well as the $79 Shuffle.

The company knows what it's doing when it comes to filling in those price gaps, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD Group.

"They have the experience of how to manage that and do it in a sort of competitive market," said Baker. But he still questions the timing. "Eventually they have to (offer a lower-end model notebook), but I don't see the evidence that they need to find new buyers now that aren't willing to spend over $1,000."

If Apple did decide to make a notebook for less than $1,000 for the first time, it would be a bigger deal for the company itself than for the market. The rest of the industry made the leap over a year ago, many already selling 15-inch notebooks for around $500. So while something like this would definitely grab its competitors' attention, and could be a major motivating factor for people unsure about switching to a Mac to finally make the leap, it's not like buyers haven't already had the option of getting a sub-$1,000 nicely configured laptop elsewhere.

"If they do it, it will be interesting to hear why they're doing it," said Richard Shim, notebook and desktop analyst at IDC. "At the very least it's a no-lose situation (for Apple) from purely a market standpoint, from gaining share."

For complete coverage of the Apple notebook news, see "Apple polishes up its MacBook line."

The average price of a Mac laptop has fallen just 3 percent over the last two years, compared to a 20 percent decline in Windows laptop pricing.

(Credit: Apple)

Speculation that Apple might be slashing Mac prices in the coming weeks could get a boost from new data released by The NPD Group.

Joe Wilcox at Apple Watch put together a chart of data from NPD showing the average selling prices of Windows PCs and Macs at retail stores in the U.S. As of June, the average Mac desktop retails for $1,543 while the average Mac notebook costs $1,515. On the Windows side, the average desktop costs $550 while the notebook costs $700.

Of course, Apple's decision to keep its Mac pricing for everything but the nearly-forgotten Mac Mini above $1,000 almost guarantees a discrepancy like that. And the arguments over what constitutes a true price comparison between Windows PCs and Macs have stretched on for years, and won't be satisfied by Wilcox's decision to compare a Dell Inspiron 518 to a 20-inch iMac.

Component to component (processor, memory, etc.) is an easier comparison to make, but what's an appropriate value for Mac OS X and its bundled applications as compared to Vista and its bundled applications? And surely there's some value in a more interesting design; Dell charges $1,299 for its 20-inch XPS One all-in-one system, which is perhaps a better comparison to the 20-inch iMac than the bulky Inspiron 518.

But while the Mac vs. PC debate is always good for ratings, what's really interesting is the trend: Windows laptops have been coming down significantly in price over the last two years while the prices of Apple laptops have basically held steady, according to NPD's data. Since June 2006, the price of the average Windows laptop has declined 20 percent, while the price of the average Mac laptop has fallen just 3 percent. Laptops drive the PC market these days, with more than half of all processors sold by Intel now destined for notebooks.

That suggests that the "product transition" hinted at by Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer that will drag down Apple's margins, coupled with persistent rumors of new notebooks, could involve new MacBooks or MacBook Pros at reduced prices. The higher-priced Mac notebooks haven't hurt sales, clearly, but lower prices could draw some new converts who have fixed budgets.

Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray agrees, suggesting in a research note Wednesday that $999 MacBooks could arrive during a long-expected September event that has yet to be formally announced by Apple, where we also expect to see revamped iPod Touches.

Dell has decided to stop selling most of its consumer notebooks that use Advanced Micro Device's chips on its Web site, promoting those systems instead through its new retail strategy.

There are still a handful of AMD notebooks available on Dell's site, but only one Insprion system targeted at home users. On the business side, you now have to wade through several Dell Web pages before you stumble upon an AMD-based laptop. Two are available, a Vostro and a Latitude, and both are being promoted as small-to-medium business systems.

The Dell Latitude D531 laptop, one of the few remaining on Dell's Web site with AMD processors.

(Credit: Dell)

"To ensure we deliver the best value to our customers, Dell regularly adjusts its product offerings, and how customers can purchase those products," Dell said in a statement. "Currently the majority of our consumer AMD-based systems are available through our retail partners such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Staples, and through telephone sales."

It's hard to see this as anything but a blow to AMD, which is coming off one of its worst years in recent memory. With these moves, Dell has positioned AMD's notebook chips as the budget-friendly alternative, which is never great for the brand. And that's despite the fact that AMD has done fairly well with its notebook chips over the last few years, even though its first true mobile design--as described by the company--won't ship until later this year.

After years of fealty to a direct sales strategy, Dell has in recent months begun to roll out its products to retail stores, even going so far as to rub elbows with the blue shirts at Best Buy. There, a wider range of AMD systems remains available. And Dell continues to offer several AMD-based desktops and servers on its Web page, which despite the new retail presence, still accounts for most of Dell's business.

But after AMD spent so much time and effort trying to win Dell as a customer, it has to be disheartening to see its Texas neighbors relegate their chips to the bottom-feeder part of the market. With new notebook chips due out fairly soon, AMD could be in a position to start moving back up the ladder into more powerful and profitable systems.

That's assuming, of course, it can get those chips out on time, and without incident. That's something AMD's customers are likely worried about coming off the Barcelona and Phenom debacles.

After a holiday spent freezing in the wilds of Connecticut and pondering the mysteries of the chip industry, I felt it was time to take stock of the latest Macworld Expo rumors.

The craziness is just 12 days away and undisturbed this year by that big gathering in the desert taking place the prior week. The predictions are starting to come in, and the early bets have mobility in mind.

For months, the betting odds have favored the introduction of new MacBooks at Macworld. It's been awhile since Apple tweaked the basic hardware design of the MacBook, and with new mobile processors expected from Intel this quarter, it seems like a natural fit. But what kind of notebook are we talking about?

The most persistent rumor is that Apple will release an ultraportable notebook, or a sub-notebook, or whatever you want to call it. Think small and thin, a 12-inch or smaller screen and a weight of less than 3 pounds. This is a small segment of the overall notebook market, but it's one of prestige, and it's not hard at all to imagine Apple wanting to put its stamp on the thinnest and lightest category of notebook computing.

The latest item to point in that direction? A patent filing for a docking station that would incorporate such a device surfaced this week, lending some credibility, if not confirmation, to the ultraportable rumor.

If you want to watch high-definition movies on your notebook, American Technology Research's Shaw Wu thinks you'll have a better idea of Apple's HD video plans following Macworld. Wu put out a research note Thursday predicting that Apple will confirm its support for Blu-ray drives, and could use the occasion to announce plans to ship notebooks with new optical drives. Apple is already a member of the Blu-Ray Disc Association, so this isn't much of a stretch, although it has held off releasing Blu-ray-equipped products to this point.

There's also some sentiment that Apple could use the Macworld stage to announce its take on the Tablet PC, revealing some sort of slate-like MacBook based entirely on flash memory, and perhaps incorporating many of the touch-screen features found on the iPhone. We've also heard this discussion center on a Apple-ish UMPC, which would ostensibly use Intel's upcoming Silverthorne chip.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is unlikely to miss a chance to talk about the iPhone as well, as we approach the first anniversary of its first public unveiling. The software development kit for the iPhone is due in February, and some analysts think that Jobs will use the occasion to unveil a 3G iPhone.

The biggest news to emerge from Jobs' January 15 keynote might just be an iTunes movie rental service, as was reported over the holiday break. But I'd advise holding off for a few weeks if you were thinking about buying a notebook from Apple.

We're a little more than a month away from the Macworld Expo, and the expectations are starting to get a little clearer for arguably Apple's biggest show of the year.

CNBC reported Thursday that Apple plans at Macworld to introduce a 12-inch Mac laptop with flash memory in place of a hard drive. Apple followers have long anticipated such a product, and several other reports have come out this year predicting a similar type of announcement was nigh.

Apple could add 12-inch notebook alongside these 13.3-inch MacBooks in January.

(Credit: Apple)

The ultraportable Mac is said to be 50 percent thinner and lighter than a current MacBook Pro, the largest notebook in Apple's lineup. And CNBC is also saying it expects the price to be about $1,500, the same price as the 13.3-inch black MacBook that's currently available on Apple's site.

I'm a little skeptical of the price, especially since the notebook would reportedly use flash memory instead of a hard drive. My colleague Michael Kanellos noted last month that Dell charges a $950 premium for a 64GB flash memory drive in place of a 160GB hard drive on one of its XPS notebooks. Perhaps Apple is using a smaller drive, or the notebook will use a less expensive processor and smaller amounts of memory to offset the cost, but flash memory drives aren't expected to be practical for a few years.

Still, it's not hard to imagine Apple coming out with that style of notebook, especially since Intel is expected to have new notebook chips out around the same time, perhaps unveiling them during CEO Paul Otellini's keynote address at CES on January 7. Ultraportable notebooks--which generally weigh in around 3 pounds or less--aren't a very big segment of the notebook market but tend to be showcases for design flair, and Apple's been known to show an interest in that sort of thing here and there.

CNBC also reported that Apple could have more to say about a 3G version of the iPhone early next year, and that demand for the iPod Touch has caused Apple to up its production estimates.