Apple product announcements coming very soon?

“Macworld has learned that supplies of certain Apple products appear restricted right now – but will ship in quantity within weeks. It’s the typical pattern of drought seen in advance of significant product launches,” Jonny Evans reports for Macworld UK.

Evans reports, “Some specific products on which a backlog exists include: all models of Mac mini, the entry-level combo drive iMac, the mid-range MacBook Pro, entry-level and black MacBooks, all models of iPod nano, and the iPod HiFi.”

Full article here.

23 Comments

  1. For the mini, one killer upgrade would be to use a 3.5 inch disk drive. Yes, the size would go up a bit, but so would the capacity and speed. The cost would go down, so Apple could lower the price and get sales up.

    Another good idea would be to make the mini easy to open to upgrade.

    I was also hoping for Santa Rosa, but I don’t think it is ready yet.

  2. TowerTone, you looking at a new Panasonic HDTV too? I’ve been monitoring the prices of the TH-42PX60U for a year now (don’t have the space in the cabinet for its slightly wider cousin), and I’m thinking a Mini would work great with it as well, especially if there was some upconverting feature available for standard DVDs to take advantage of the high def. (Otherwise there may be an Oppo DVD player sitting next to it instead, or as well.) How would you plan on using the HDTV and Mini together, or would you?

    MW since – “Monitoring HDTV prices since 2006.”

  3. While looking at tht TH-42PX600U I ran into the Hitachi 42HDS69. Much sharper detail and better overall picture quality. Black levels aren’t quite as good but aren’t bad. I bought the Hitachi from Amazon for under $1500 shipped in December. Couldn’t be happer.

    The TH-42PX600U is a great TV with some of the best black levels in Plasma today, but skin tones are orangy (even after calibration) and it is nowhere near as sharp as my Hitachi. The Hitachi’s greens are a little bit over saturated, but that makes football fields look amazing. There used to be a “Flicker” problem with the Hitachi but now that has been fixed via firmware. I think it is the best buy for plasma around at the moment.

  4. Forget about plasma, LCD tv’s are where it’s at:

    Check out the Sony KDL-XBR2, it is hands down the best HD pic available today.. Top rated and editors choice from cNet and Consumer Reports: (This is also the same tv that Apple used to showcase Apple Tv at Macworld and they will also be using this in the Apple stores.)

    http://www.amazon.com/Sony-KDL-40XBR2-Bravia-1080p-HDTV/dp/B000H6GFKG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1052366-7411267?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1173283314&sr=8-1

  5. Escaport and Allen, thanks for the recommendations. I still can’t bring myself to buy a Sony product after the Sony BMG rootkit fiasco (even if Apple’s willing to), but I’ll take a look at the Hitachi. Price is also a factor–I could get a 42-inch plasma and an iMac (or two Mac Minis) for the price of that Sony!

  6. Judging by the appalling reaction to Vista, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple isn’t able to make enough of any of this stuff. Forget new products, the existing ones are light years ahead of the competition.

  7. I will agree that the XBR Sony’s are very nice. I looked at this unit side by side with the Sony and Panasonic. I stand by my statement that my Hitachi is sharper. That is just one of Plasmas advantages over LCD at the moment (may not always be this way). The Hitachi’s other advantage over the Sony is about $1k lower price which is almost twice as expensive. That makes up for a lot of short comings. You can’t compare a 5-series BMW to a Toyota Camery and expect price not to be a factor. That said, the Hitachi stands up very close to the Sony.

    Also, 1080p isn’t all it is cracked up to be. There isn’t a true pure 1080p source unit available at the moment anyway. Blu-ray, HD-DVD etc… all go to 1080i internally at some point and convert back to 1080p for output, thus negating any benefit of 1080p. Also, as far as I know, no current broadcaster broadcasts in 1080p. Satellite, off-air, cable…no-one. It’s just too much data for the bandwidth available. I think the term is “not commercially viable.”

  8. Yes, no doubt the Sony’s are expensive… However, the determining factors were 3 HDMI ports, component upconversion, 1080p (futureproof,) Apple chose it (okay, Im a fanboy,) and did I mention the PQ? Side by side comparisons, I couldn’t find anything more astonishing.

    Also, this was a major purchase for me, it is big and sits in the middle of my living room so styling was very important… It is technically a piece of furniture… In my opinion, it is the best looking HD tv I’ve ever seen.. That floating glass bezel looks so cool! You’ve got a point though, it’s expensive, but I don’t make purchase like this very often so I just bit the bullet and went with it.

  9. I’m sure that in typical Apple fashion any announcement soon will be followed by a “available Q2 2008”. I got tired of waiting for them to release the Apple TV, which they announced six months ago, so I cancelled my order.
    Let’s hope any products pending announcement will be available at or soon after they announce them.

  10. The MacBooks aren’t currently in line for anything more than a modest speed bump, same for the iMacs. Those won’t receive any kind of a significant upgrade until last this summer once Santa Rosa is available form Intel.

    The Mac mini and Mac Pro though are both in line for a significant update very soon though.

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