iBook Life Cycle

the time frame for apple updates is about 6-9 months i think.

apple are VERY good at stopping stuff like this from leaving their HQ, so non of us can honesly give you a correct answer about when the next ibooks are comming out.

one thing i can be sure of is that next ibooks will be out this yeat, but no one can really say when.

i personally don't think we'll see another substantial ibook until a pretty big pb jump. As it sits now the 12" ibook vs pb is a pretty big dedate, including the new rev d. I think if they bumped the 12" ibook any more it would really cannibalize pb sales.. as i think it did prior to the updates.

AFAIK, thru out the last 3 yrs apple has updated their iBooks in the spring and fall, so roughly april and october. if there is a G5 notebook that debuts this summer, it would nicely coincide w/ the expected Tiger release.

one thing to consider is that the recent upgrades in the G4 PBs don't necessarily have to imply that a G5 isn't on the way. they really didn't tweak too much w/ it. the new trackpad scrolling issue is more about the drivers than it is the pad itself, and the new drop protection is a feature of the harddrive and not something apple really had anything to do with. in other words, apple didn't have to invest a great deal of time energy and money into the new features, so the notion of rolling over to a new notebook all together doesn't seem so absurd when u factor these things in.

now if the sketchy Asus (they make apple's notebooks for those who don't know) shipping notes have any vailidity, i personally think we'll get an indicator of it this spring when/if apple does their seasonal upgrades to the iBook or not. if not i'd be mighty suspicious that they'd be witholding the upgrades bc the new G5s would be coming in short order. if they do the spring freshening i'd say that it points toward the long shot of the PBs getting the G5 this summer, and more likely later this year. if apple doesn't do SOMETHING to really upgrade their notebook line this year, they're plum crazy.

i am sure they are planning something for this year.