Apple was once very secretive about their new product announcements. Not so any more. Just about any Mac fanboy knows that tomorrow (October 14), Apple will introduce a new line of Macintosh notebooks or MacBooks.
In 1984, Apple announced the Macintosh. The fabled Mac 1984 commercial was revolutionary in many ways.
Later that same year, Apple released the Apple //c computer, which was a compact (hence the “c”) version of the popular Apple II. The computer was hidden under every chair at the event. So at a certain point in time, Steve Jobs asked everyone in attendance to reach under their seats. In unison hundreds of reporters and fanboys yanked out the Apple //c and hoisted it over their heads screaming and giggling like little girls.
Since the original Macintosh and Apple //c events, Apple and Steve Jobs have had a theatrical flair for introducing new products. (Well, forget for a second the period of banishment when Steve Jobs was ejected from Apple and the company languished.) No so anymore, however.
Everyone knew that the iPhone was coming. No one knew quite what it looked like.
The current iMac line up was pretty much known before it was introduced.
The MacBook Air was a surprise, but people knew that something was coming.
Recently, the iPod lineup was revitalized, but most Apple fanatics had already seen prototypes and schematics on the various Macintosh rumor sites. Still, the rainbow of iPod nano colors wasn’t known until Steve Jobs revealed them last month.
So tomorrow, pretty much everyone in the universe knows that a new line of Macintosh laptop computers is coming out. There is speculation on the price points; hopefully the prices will drop down to be competitive with PC laptops. There is speculation on the design process. There are even phony images and videos of what the products will look like.
But honestly, the looks, features, and price-points are the only unknowns. Unlike the Apple of days gone by, tomorrow’s “Notebook Event” is about new Macintosh laptops. The world will know everything about them by lunch, Pacific Time. That is, if the financial markets haven’t imploded by then.
