Chicago (IL) – Speculating what products Apple may introduce at one of its secretive events has become a popular game on the Internet. And since Apple announced such an event, since it indicated that it will focus on notebooks and since mysterious pictures of potentially new Apple products are making their rounds on the Internet, it is not really a surprise that the Apple rumor mill has gone crazy once again. There are reasonable expectations what Apple is most likely to introduce – a refreshed notebook family with upgraded hardware – but there is lots of speculation about a mysterious “Brick” manufacturing process that could result in sub-$800 notebooks as well. Join us for an overview of current rumors.

The first spy shot of what may be a new Macbook design came from a Chinese forum in May and left a lasting impression. The same forum recently released three more close ups of a possible Macbook Pro enclosure that AppleInsider believes is genuine, citing "people familiar with the ongoing development" of the new notebook lineup. The new Macbook Pros appear to be slightly thinner and slightly more rounded, resembling the appearance of the MacBook Air. The regular Macbook ditches the plastic casing in favor of an aircraft-grade aluminum enclosure. Both notebooks are widely believed to borrow MacBook Air's black keyboard and an oversized trackpad. It is believed to be made out of glass to fully enable precise Multi-Touch controls like the iPhone. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says that new aluminum casing and gesture-based touchpad will make the Macbook a "more premium product".

9 to 5 Mac claims there will be a two-tone design for the new notebooks, with the outer shell made of the same type of black plastic found on the backside of the iMac and the inside shell around the keyboard and screen made from aluminum. The inside enclosure will have a much smaller and denser laser-cut speaker holes, with expansion ports moved to the side with port labels printed next to ports. It appears that the Macbook Pro drops DVI in favor of a mini-DVI output due to space issues.

The bottom is believed to be tapered like in MacBook Air and will sport a latch that releases the cover with access to the battery and possibly the hard disk, enabling users to swap HDD or SDD without voiding the warranty. Apple is also believed to move to a true 16:9 screen resolution, in 14” and 15.6” sizes.

Hardware

Hardware changes are expected to focus on Intel’s Montevina platform with a new "Socket B" logic-board to accommodate second-gen Penryn processors with a 1066 MHz front-side bus and clock speeds between 2.26 GHz and 2.8 GHz and Nvidia graphics processor. Cult of Mac's Leander Kahney predicts 2.4 GHz, 2.66 GHz, 2.8 GHz, and 3.06 GHz models, 2 GB of RAM for MB and 4 GB for MBP, and hard drive sizes between 160 GB and 320 GB. TG Daily believes there will be optional SDD upgrade options, especially since 80 GB/128 GB SSDs have replaced 64 GB models on the high-end and 64 GB drives are moving towards the mainstream with prices of less than $200 even in the retail market. It would be nice to finally see a permanent Internet connection through 3G (HSDPA or EV-DO) module or even WiMax but don't hold your breath for it, especially the latter which has yet to mature and become global.

TG Daily’s take: Processor, memory and storage upgrades are a given to maintain hardware competitiveness. New SSDs follow flash memory price drops and are necessary at least for the Macbook Air and are much more interesting for Macbook Pro for performance reasons. Apple is late with 3G already: We expect the company to catch up, otherwise the lack of this feature option may be one of the big downsides of Apple notebooks for the next 3-6 months. 

Another rumor claims that Apple may ditch Intel’s Montevina chipset altogether, but not Core 2 Duo processors, in favor of a new Nvidia chipset and GPUs that would give Apple Intel features with added benefits of accelerated video and advanced power management. PC Perspective's Ryan Shrout thinks that Apple will adopt the single-chip MCP79 chipset that incorporates a GeForce graphics core with Shader Model 4.0, VP3 video core for accelerated movie playback, HDMI video output interface, and Hybrid Power, Hybrid SLI and Hybrid Performance features. TUAW claims, citing "various sources," that Nvidia is deeply involved in new Macbook Pros and is indeed showcasing pre-production models within the company.

TG Daily’s take: This is entirely possible, but we would be surprised if it really happens. It would drive Apple much more into a balanced-performance model, highlighting graphics performance. Don’t hold your breath for this one.

Read on the next page: Brick manufacturing process, Models and price points, Conclusion

Brick manufacturing process

The new notebooks are widely believed to be sculpted from a single piece of aircraft-grade aluminum, using a new high-tech manufacturing technique code-named "Brick" that lowers production and assembly cost. The process carves a notebook casing with lasers and water-jet cutting, with no folding or bending that creates weak spots or microfolds that decrease material durability.

Design-wise, Brick should result in an attractive, screw-free casing seamlessly made out of a single piece of aluminum. Some reports even speculate that Apple will move assembly from Asia to its own high-tech, fully automated production facility with a couple of dozen humans that will oversee the robots.

TG Daily’s take: We believe we can take this rumor for certain. There are enough pictures out of these notebooks to substantiate the brick claims.

Models and price points

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, the 13” Macbook will start at $899 or $999, echoing a leaked price lists with 12 price points for new Apple notebooks, including an $800 MB model. Daring Fireball's John Gruber thinks that the $800 price is credible, but notes that he "finds it hard to believe" that the company would make such a misstep and distribute prices to resellers in advance.

Munster expects the new, more premium Macbooks to become "a meaningful upgrade" that will sell at 9% to 18% lower average selling prices than today's models. He believes 15” and 17” top of the line Macbook Pro models will start at $1899 and climb to $3100 at the high end, with thinner appearance and a high-tech glass Multi-Touch trackpad as their main selling points. Munster said that we should not touchscreen-enabled Apple notebooks. "While we are confident that Apple will eventually bring its touchscreen technology from the iPhone to the Mac, we do not expect to see a touchscreen Mac this year," he said.

TG Daily’s take: It has been clear for several months that the market is hungry for low-cost notebooks and those who do not have a notebook in the $500 region will be shut out of a quickly growing segment. It is unlikely that Apple will go into the $500 netbook market, but an $800 notebook would be an appropriate answer for the company in these times. And we agree with Munster that a touchscreen is not what the market needs this year.

Conclusion

From where we're standing, the biggest news could be a 13” Macbook for $800. Apple always enjoyed higher average selling prices that contribute to margins three times higher than the rest of the industry. However, Apple's chief of finance Peter Oppenheimer recently hinted at new products with aggressive price points that will eat into Apple's margins. Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil said that the Macbook is "the single model with the greatest revenue," with an estimated $1.3 billion in sales in the second quarter. So this is really where the focus of the innovation should be focused on.

Apple is required to target a broader range of price sensitive customers because of the economic downturn. If the Macbook moves into sub-$1000 notebook market, Apple will be, for the first time ever, in direct competition with low-cost PC makers and it will be interesting to see if the company can withstand serious price pressure in a commodity-driven space and at the same time retain premium features and meaty profit margins.