Laptop Rumor Wrapup: Winners and Losers

Few Apple product announcements have been preceded by such a discordant flurry of rumors as the Powerbook and iBook revisions that took place on November 6, 2002. After each announcement, MacRumors attempts to sift through the rumors and their sources to reveal their accuracy in hindsight.

PowerBooks

Powerbook rumors have been floating around since their last revision in April... so much that we wrote a Powerbook Rumor Summary back in September, 2002 to recap rumors up until that point. In review, both MacOS Rumors and Spymac provided early hints that Powerbooks would be updated before the New Year, contrary to PowerPage's continued reports.

Relative rumor newcomer -- Kodawarisan -- provided many hints since September, with initial predictions of 800MHz/1GHz Powerbooks in the 3rd week of October. As this date approached, MacPlus.org provided the definitive date of November 5th, 2002 - which was confirmed by our own sources. They revealed that both Powerbooks and 19" LCD's would be released on this day... but LCD's have yet to arrive. The actual date was, of course, pushed back by one day, as reported by ThinkSecret.

The Superdrive option was one that many sites (ThinkSecret, MacOSRumors, MacUser UK) definitively denied... but was one point that MacRumors' own sources persisted on... and proved to come true.

One of the most notable mis-calls was made by MacUser.co.uk. Typically, when the non-rumor Mac press reports on rumors, readers listen... but their report of 933MHz, No Superdrive, Yes Bluetooth Powerbooks turned out to be inaccurate.

iBooks

The iBook updates were low on the radar throughout most of the recent weeks. Kodawarisan hinted at 13" iBooks, while YourDailyMac later posted reports of an iBook update with Powerbooks in November, along with a report of 32MB iBook Video RAM.

And ThinkSecret provided early iBook specs which turned out to be true, while PowerPage provided final specs in the days before the annoncement.

Summary

All in all, an diverse collection of sites and rumors... with some real information coming from relatively unknown (rumor) sites -- MacPlus.org, Kodawarisan, YourDailyMac.com.

Rumors to Watch

19" LCD's?

Apple LCD Display Rumors Summary

XRaid - due by end of 2002

iPhoto Update