No Questioning New 'Book Value

There's no question about it - the new iBooks and PowerBooks represent a better value than their predecessors. In every case Apple has increased speed while decreasing price. And this should have a devastating effect on the value of used and just discontinued models.

iBook (November 2002)

There isn't a whole lot of difference between the new iBooks and the models they replace. Each has a 100 MHz speed bump, and the internal video now uses ATI's Mobility Radeon 7500 chipset.

The entry level iceBook has a 700 MHz G3, 16 MB of VRAM, 128 MB of RAM, a 20 GB hard drive, and a CD-ROM player at a remarkable $999 price. If you don't need to burn CDs and need portability, it's a winner.

The 12" 800 MHz model doubles VRAM to 32 MB, which will be especially helpful with Quartz Extreme in Mac OS X 10.2.x. The CD-RW drive now supports burning at up to 16x, twice the rated speed of the older model. At $1,299, it's also a winner.

For those who find 1024 x 768 on a 12" display troublesome (count me among them), the 14" iBook has everything the 12" 800 MHz model does - but with a larger screen and a higher price tag. With 256 MB RAM and a 30 GB drive, road warriors with less than perfect vision should consider this a bargain at $1,599.

The only question is whether Apple will come up with a meaningful label to differentiate the new iBook from the previous models. Until then, we'll call it the November 2002 series.

PowerBook G4 (SuperDrive)

The biggest difference between the new TiBook and all those that went before it is the availability of a SuperDrive, making this the ultimate video editing tool for field use. That said, you do have to buy the top-end 1 GHz model to get the SuperDrive.

Both models have the same 133 MHz bus, display, and video output options as the Spring 2002 models, but the up the ante with faster CPUs (867 MHz and 1 GHz) and improved video (ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 AGP4x with 32 or 64 MB of video memory).

The $2,299 "entry level" model offers over twice the processing power of my less-than-two-year-old PowerBook G4/400, includes a Combo drive vs. the first generation's DVD-ROM drive, and offers a gorgeous 1280 x 854 display. With full support for Quartz Extreme and ATI's latest chipset, a lot of TiBook owners with first generation machines will see a big enough increase in performance to think about upgrading.

Then again, this should severely impact the value of these older TiBooks - in line with my projection that a 400 MHz TiBook would have a street value of about $1,000 after two years of use. Those considering an iBook because of price but also desiring dual monitor support might want to look into the used TiBook market in coming months.

At the top, the PowerBook finally hits the very marketable 1 GHz mark. The small speed bump compared with the G4/867 doesn't justify the higher price, but the SuperDrive gives the 1 GHz TiBook unprecedented value for those who burn DVDs - or want to. I can't imagine a better computer for someone into digital video.

For the rest of us, I think the 800 MHz iBooks and 867 MHz PowerBook will meet our needs quite comfortably.

Which only leaves one question: What's left for Apple to unveil at Macworld Expo in January?