There is one other factor in buying laptops these days.

In the U.S., we're getting into a VERY HEAVY period of inflation. Apple has "held the line" on pricing for many years, choosing to add features rather than cut prices.

The next release of products will be more expensive, almost certainly. I think prices will eventually double on most products within a few years.

This Electronista article explains that the new Centrino Intel processors due in June will have Blu-ray decoding built-in, so perhaps that is the time we'll see Blu-ray optical drives in laptops? It looks like Intel wants improve the on-chip graphics processor also for DirectX 10. Will Apple be able to use that?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chuck M,

I see don't see why Apple couldn't have offered as an option a Blu-ray drive in the latest MacBook and MacBook Pro updates......

Sony is offering the following Blu-ray drives as in option in the VGN-FZ4000 laptop that starts at $1279.99

Thanks Jeff! This is exactly my point!

A wild guess (about Sony): they make Blu-ray drives, and are pro-active in seeding the marketplace with money making devices. Sony is capable of making their own special chips for Blu-ray.

Apple, on the other hand, seems to be firmly in Intel's camp these days. Intel has other plans - they'll put Blu-ray enhancements (Intel Clear Video) in the Centrino 2 Montevina processors in June 2008.

If Apple wanted to do Blu-ray, they would. Apple has no problem getting intel to do "special" chips when needed as witnessed by the MacBook Air's processor.

My Titanium PowerBook is 6 years old. I guess I can wait a couple more months for a better laptop.

One of the newslines said Intel forced Apple to introduce new laptops at this time, because Intel is going to rapidly deplete inventory on the old chips.

I think the June '08 laptops will not only have Blu-ray, but new nVidia graphics chips, and hopefully a new HiDef DisplayPort connector. Maybe somebody can dig deeper to learn about Intel plans for WiMax. I don't think we'll see a built-in capability for 3G data services (EDGE or EV-DO), but maybe our information is wrong?

quote:

Originally posted by Chuck M:
One of the newslines said Intel forced Apple to introduce new laptops at this time, because Intel is going to rapidly deplete inventory on the old chips....

I doubt it was "forced". More likely it was, "Hey- we've got these new chips coming later this year, so if you guys want to make a few bucks, get something out before the upgrade".