PowerBook Central: Subnotebooks

At this year's Macworld Expo in New York, Steve Jobs expanded Apple's four quadrant product strategy to six slots. The Power Mac G4 Cube will fill one of those open spaces, slated between the iMac family and Power Mac Pro models, while the sixth and final slot was left blank.

Does this leave the door open for a new portable line to fill the sixth space? I think it's a strong possibility. Apple is in dire need of a pro subnotebook, which had been missing from their product line since the demise of the PowerBook 2400c. Charles Moore covered this topic in some detail in one of his latest MacOpinion columns, "Apple's Subnotebook PowerBooks: A Retrospective."

With Apple apparently working on the process of downsizing some of its models, like the Cube, now would be a wonderful opportunity to introduce a pro subnotebook to compliment the G4 Cube, much the same way that the iBook compliments the iMac, and the PowerBook compliments the Power Mac G4 Pro.

Since this year's New York Expo was centered around Apple's desktop line, I think that Macworld San Francisco is the most likely venue for the introduction of a subnotebook, along with a refreshening of the rest of the portable line, including the introduction of a PowerBook G4 (referred to as Mercury).

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Stephen Hildreth has been the Editor-in-Chief of PowerBook Central since its inception in 1996. When not working on his Mac, he shares his love of the outdoors with his family and can be found biking, snow skiing, or educating students on the internal & external processes of our planet.