Rumor: Apple to Release Ultra-Portable MacBook

Apple Inc. may sell its ultra-portable laptops starting in second half of 2007. These Mac subnotebooks will be equipped with flash-memory based solid state drives instead of traditional hard drives, Reuters reports according to Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research.

Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox said the company does not comment “on rumor and speculation”. The previous reports say the small MacBook is expected to be released near Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in mid 2007.

There are no detailed specifications of Apple’s small mobile computers.

The solid state drives are already used in some Samsung notebooks, as well as in Samsung’s and Sony’s ultra-mobile PCs. The SSDs are claimed to provide faster system boot-up times and faster application loading, as well as longer battery life and greater durability, compared to standard HDDs.

Previous article version (02/16/2007): Apple is working on an ultra-portable version of MacBook laptop, AppleInsider reports.

It is rumored that the new MacBook sub-notebook will be “lighter and more compact than any other Mac portable Apple has put forth in recent years”, and will include the use of NAND flash memory to speed up boot times. The optical drive will be excluded in rumored model in order to save on space.

The small MacBook is expected to be released near Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in mid 2007.