17-inch Apple PowerBook production OK

According to sources, production problems for the 17-inch Apple PowerBook have finally been solved. Unveiled in January and originally due to be in mass-production for availability in February, mass production is only just now ready to be ramped up, with products expected in the channel this month.Compal Electronics is said to be the contract manufacturer of the 17-inch PowerBook. Sources estimated that initial quantities would be around 50,000 to 60,000 units. Boosted by this product, Compal’s April sales may reach a record high. Sources suggested that the OEM price for the 17-inch PowerBook exceeds US$1,500, while the suggested retail price starts at US$3,299. Compal is also said to have landed orders for a 15.4-inch PowerBook, a replacement version of the 15.2-inch PowerBook made by Quanta Computer.Last year, Apple sold around 300,000 units of the PowerBook series and about 500,000 to 600,000 units of the iBook, the company’s entry-level notebook series.The large-screen PowerBook comes with a PowerPC G4 processor running at 1GHz, 512MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM, a 60GB hard drive and a DVD-R/CD-RW combo drive. The 17-inch TFT LCD offers a resolution of 1,440¥900 pixels in a widescreen 16:10 aspect ratio. Connectivity is provided via new high-speed FireWire 800, AirPort Extreme 54Mbps 802.11g wireless networking and built-in Bluetooth.Source: DigiTimes