“Sources deep within Intel tell us everything is going swimmingly for the new MCW cores, but Apple won’t produce a laptop with Merom until 2007. The delay is most likely due to a convergence of two things, production and Apple’s limited range,” Charlie Demerjian reports for The Inquirer.
Demerjian reports, “Intel has said that MCW, nee Core 2^2 the second, will hit about 20% of their production on new years eve, but what they don’t offer up is the split for M/C/W. Unless you have had your head buried in the sand, you know that Woodcrest is getting the lion’s share of production, over 70% of Xeons will be new. Conroe is next in line with 20+%, followed by a syphilitic trickle of Meroms.”
“So, said trickle means that you don’t put the few Meroms you get in anything but the highest end lowest volume models of your lineup. If you have a dozen models, you might pick one to be graced by the new wondercore. If you are Apple with two or four models, depending on how you count, then you can’t really get enough to supply even one model,” Demerjian reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: If this report is reliable (and there is some question as Core 2 Duo iMacs were released yesterday), then our best guess for Apple to debut Intel Core 2 Duo-powered notebooks would be Macworld Expo in San Francisco, January 8-12.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Related MacDailyNews articles:
The Seattle Times: Apple Macbook is best computer for school – August 26, 2006
PC Advisor: Apple MacBook ‘a terrific piece of hardware, quite a product’ – July 31, 2006
Apple 13-Inch MacBook benchmarked: it’s fast – July 24, 2006
Washington Times: If you want a stylish, great, capable portable, buy an Apple MacBook – July 18, 2006
AP: Apple’s MacBook should give makers of Windows-only notebooks nightmares – July 07, 2006
Boston Herald: Apple MacBook superior to iBook predecessor in every way – July 03, 2006
MSNBC’s Krakow: Apple’s MacBook ‘the best notebook computer I’ve ever used’ – June 28, 2006
The Washington Times: Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook ‘is one powerful, affordable Mac portable’ – June 23, 2006
IT Business Net reviews Apple 13-inch MacBook: ‘Insanely great value, Strong Buy recommendation’ – June 13, 2006
Computeract!ve: Apple MacBook ‘the best of both worlds’ – 5 out of 5 stars – June 13, 2006
Washington Post: Apple MacBook leaves iBook in the dust – June 11, 2006
Mossberg: Apple’s new MacBook surprisingly inexpensive, offers vastly superior Mac OS X – June 08, 2006
Time Magazine on Apple’s 13-inch MacBook: ‘Dell and HP should be very worried’ – June 07, 2006
Thurrott: Look at Apple’s MacBook and ‘you might just find your perfect notebook’ – May 31, 2006
Personal Computer World review: Apple MacBook – May 22, 2006
Amazon offers US$100 and $150 rebates on Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro models – May 22, 2006
Ars Technica reviews Apple MacBook – May 19, 2006
iTWire’s Beer: My next notebook is an Apple MacBook – May 18, 2006
Analyst: MacBooks are best consumer notebooks Apple has created, sure to be big winners – May 18, 2006
Apple’s new MacBooks are mobile HDTV media centers – May 17, 2006
PC World: Hands on with Apple’s new black MacBook running Mac OS X and Windows – May 17, 2006
BusinessWeek: Apple MacBook Pro ‘one of the very best notebooks on the market’ – June 09, 2006
Windows expert weighs in on Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro – June 07, 2006
Washington Times: Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro the ‘who’s-your-daddy’ of notebooks – June 06, 2006
CNET review: Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro is a dream (CNET rating: 7.3 out of 10) – June 03, 2006
PC Magazine: Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro: ‘offers virtually everything a user needs’ – May 26, 2006
Detroit Free Press’ Wendland: Apple MacBook Pro ‘the finest portable computer I have ever owned’ – March 14, 2006
Fortune: Apple improves what were already two of best computers on planet with iMac, MacBook Pro – March 14, 2006
Seattle Times: Apple’s MacBook Pro ‘delivers the Mac experience with speed and potential to spare’ – March 11, 2006
AP: Apple shines with MacBook Pro – ‘fast with decent battery life’ – March 11, 2006
Apple’s MacBook Pro ‘leaps a generation beyond PowerBooks’ – March 08, 2006
Boston Herald: Apple MacBook Pro ‘contender for best notebook on market, comes with a superior OS’ – March 06, 2006
Time Magazine’s Gadget of the Week: Apple MacBook Pro – March 06, 2006
PC Magazine review gives Apple MacBook Pro 4 out of 5 stars – March 03, 2006
Ars Technica: Apple MacBook Pro ‘an extremely solid machine, an important step forward’ – March 02, 2006
Mossberg: Apple’s MacBook Pro gives users a ‘much better OS with vastly better built-in software’ – March 02, 2006
New York Times’ Pogue: Apples MacBook Pro a ‘beautifully engineered, forward-thinking laptop’ – March 01, 2006
Apple MacBook Pro a ‘drop-dead gorgeous laptop’ – February 27, 2006
Computerworld: Apple’s MacBook Pro ‘fast, really fast – looks like a real winner’ – January 28, 2006
Well, we’re still better off than we would have been with PPC.
Oh well, I guess I’m not getting my new MacBook Pro until January then!
That’s bullshit. They’ve ALREADY upgraded the iMacs, which sell pretty damn well.
NOOOOOOOOOO ! ! !
Let’s hope this is just bad intel and not bad Intel.
the core2duos in the imac areonly 667mhz frontside bus, thats pretty bad – my G5 is about 1.35ghz frontside bus. better to wait till next year with the faster bus speeds. or get a macpro unless you absolutly need a portable
The new MacBook Pros are significantly more powerful than the models they replaced and they’ve been around less than a year … get a life, will ya?
Sorry, this report just doesn’t make any sense.
For one thing, HP, Dell, and all the other big-name PC makers have already announced Core 2 notebooks.
Now we’re expected to believe that Apple is going to have to wait until 2007 because of chip supply issues when all the other players combined dwarf Apple in raw volume? While all the other PC makers sell Merom notebooks by the millions?
The idiotic blathering of the Inquirer rears its head again.
MBP will be updated by the end of the month, this is a BS article…
DLMeyer: I think you left out a lowercase i.
Ampar, Anybody who doesn’t already have iLife – preferably ’06 – is beyond hope of ever having a ‘life’ – unless they are planning to switch Real Soon Now!
When I tipped MDN to the story I commented that:
I knew that a delay was in store when, roughly a month ago, Intel said that the first 10 weeks of Core 2 production would only amount to 1 million chips. I did not realize that it would take until the end of the year to get production up to the levels of supporting Apple’s notebooks. The good part is that MacBook and MacBook Pro sales are humongous.
DLMeyer: Touché!
I’ve always been pro-iLife.
Boo! I want my new MacBook Pro! I’m itching to upgrade from a 17″ G4 Powerbook (as lovely as it is). More power, faster, FASTER!
Oh well. At least I won’t have to wait as long after buying it to upgrade my Creative Suite..
This story lost ALL credibility as soon as I saw “The Inquirer.”
“Apple’s limited range”
what???
really WHAT??!?
all they have to do is decide to do it, and solder those chips on instead of the existing chips….
They will likely up the MBPros to the core 2 duo in the next month or so.
And the original Core Duo will remain in the MacBooks until intel has a better chip for the same money.
I wish I could spout garbage to make money.
This excerpt from the last paragraph of the article speaks to the credibility of the story:
“Since it is mole migration season, I have been asking many of the little critters streaming past my house, and they all say that iMeromBooks are a 2007 product.”
-nuf said.
The Register scores yet another own goal…
Bullshit and more bullshit…
This is disappointing but not too surprising, IF true.
The current Merom with a 667 front side bus is only 5% to 15% faster than the same clock as Yonah because the slow bus speed starves the cores a bit. By January Intel is expected to ship a version with a 800 front side bus. The faster front side bus should eliminate the bit of starvation and thus should be 25% to 50% faster than Yonah at the same clock.
I doubt this is true. I think we’ll see Core 2 duo MacBook Pros way before the holiday season and either small price drops or minor upgrades to the MacBooks.
My 3 cents – hey, I feel generous today!
I just meant combination between Apple new “brick” and Skype killer JAJAH (http://www.jajah.com)!
This article made me sad. SOMERBODY make me happy!
Buster,
The article is just tripe. Don’t believe a word of it.
The MacBook Pro was never meant to carry the plain Core Duo chip in the first place. This was always intended for the MacBook and Mini. The MacBook Pro’s chip was meant to be the Core 2 Duo from the get go. Unfortunately, the planets didn’t align for Apple. back then, the world was clamoring for a replacement to the G4 PowerBook really bad. And clearly it was not going to have a G5 in it. It had to be an Intel chip. Besides, it hasn’t looked good for the MacBook Pro to share the chip of its lesser kin. As soon as the MacBooks were released, many MacBook Pro owners felt shortchanged.
Meroms will go into the MacBook Pro line ASAP and it will not be announced with much ado.
They’ll just appear one day as if nothing had happened. And another Apple wrong will have been made right with minimum adverse effect.
I don’t think Apple will wait until January for Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros. But if supply is really constrained, there may be no option. What Apple wants to do is one thing. What it can do is based on supply of parts.
This is great news! Let’s hope it’s true! With a little luck, Apple will not update the MacBooks for a while. Until then, I can honestly claim that I have the latest MacBook model. It’s good to be the King – for as little time as it lasts.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
Oh well…
Peace.
Fear not. The moral of this story is that MacBooks will not get Merom until 2007. The low-volume, high-margin line is the MBP. The MBP WILL get the Merom soon. Lower-margin, high sales volume MacBooks cannot get Merom in the short term due to the circumstances that the author was trying to convey in his poorly written article.