[jonyo]

I'm pretty certain that the black Macbook case is actually made out of a slightly different material than the white case, leading to different production costs.
- JonYo

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
It's good progression but I'm glad they did this now. I'll be replacing my MacBook -- Going to try the every eleven month method -- in summer of next year and hoping Apple grants the MacBook a GMA 3000 and a 2.16 or maybe even 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo right before. A faster system / memory bus would also be nice but not absolutely necessary.

[MCJ]

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Yes, the MacBook and the MacBook Pro are getting too close in capability. You know what, I think that portends good things for the future. If Apple is letting the MacBook gain features that push it that close to the MacBook Pro, maybe...Apple has some surprises coming for the Pro to fling it far ahead of the MacBook again. Better video? Higher resolution? External SATA? Do something interesting with all the extra space in the 17" case?
Isn't the Aluminum case design almost 4 years old now?
Let's hope it's a fun Macworld SF in just 8 weeks...

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I with you on this - I suspect Apple is going to overhaul the MacBook Pro line in a major way. I believe that there may be a new form factor with Blu-Ray optical drives.

[bastion]

not because I care that other people might think it's um, cool because it's more expensive.
Wrong way 'round. It's not cool because it's more expensive. It's more expensive because the color has extra desirability within certain market segments.

[bigpics]

My iBook's a year old and IS a little pokey even with 1GB and plenty of free HD space, so I'm chafing a bit. But it still does everything I need it for.
So, while these are definitely tempting machines on a maturing platform, I plan to wait to save the Leopard and iLife upgrade costs for one. Beyond that, along with a speed bump and maybe another HD storage bump, I much hope to see the new Core2duo only chipset which is said to have much better graphics performance by the same time.
The latter (graphics hardware) is probably going to be the differentiator for me as to whether I'll get the MB or MBP.
Two other differences, i.e., the size and half pound weight difference to lug around (I have a bad back) in favor of the MB vs the higher res screen on the MBP are more or less a compromise weighing of features I have to make that isn't likely to go away.

[bigpics]

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I'm actually somewhat surprised Apple did this -- I thought they might leave the MacBook on the first-gen Core Duo, just to further separate the MacBook Pro from the entry level machine. I'm not upset that they did this, of course, just surprised

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Yes, the MacBook and the MacBook Pro are getting too close in capability. You know what, I think that portends good things for the future. If Apple is letting the MacBook gain features that push it that close to the MacBook Pro, maybe...Apple has some surprises coming for the Pro to fling it far ahead of the MacBook again.

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I actually think a lot of people who are sounding almost protective of Apple (not these two quotes to any great extent) are just used to the way Apple USED to market their machines for many years.
Their segmentation worked for a niche company with niche products and a limited budget which used a tightly limited number of SKU's to maintain gross margins -- while simultaneously hurting their chances to gain market share.
I've been watching this industry from its inception and have felt Apple's strategy for growth was shooting itself in the foot -- witness IBM's attempt to market the PC, Jr. with it's chiclet only keyboard -- and many other products that were intentionally crippled, i.e., made to be less than they could have been to avoid stealing market share from higher ticket items.
And we all know how well that worked out for IBM over the long run -- you know IBM -- the company that no longer sells "IBM-Compatible" PC's or any PC's at all......
On the other hand, Apple's currently more awash in development and marketing cash than ever with lots of buzz and momentum while aggresively competing head to head for the first time against companies which flood every segment with hordes of models.
So as long as they can maintain gross margins on constantly growing sales of MacBooks, they can make more money by growing market share with more sales of smaller per sale revenue machines.
If I'm not mistaken, Apple's number one volume computer is the MacBook. It is thus critical to their business, and to keep their momentum, the MB has to keep offering better value than the comparable Dells, Toshibas, Lenovos, Gateways, Sonys -- not navel gaze and cripple the MacBook in comparison to the MBP, which they could do when targeting their base with their PPC processor machines.
In other words, iMacs and MacBooks are now the most strategic Macs for Apple, while MBP's are the still profitable but lower volume choice for pros, hobbyists, gamers, serious video and photo folk and the like. It's a strategy of segmenting by what people really need rather than between their own machines -- and they're trusting the market to sort itself out as they serve as many segments of the market as they can get a foothold in and upgrade all their lines as fast as they can.
Way exciting to me. And much smarter than the previous "Apple Way."
As for development, as I look at where Apple's been deploying their finite R&D money, they've done an amazing job of transitioning their entire computer product line (hardware and software) with remarkable speed and amazingly smoothly given the magnitude of the change.
They've replaced or upgraded 2/3 of their iPod line, gone head to head with Adobe with Apeture, are wrapping up the biggest upgrade of OS X in years, will be bringing out iTV and n speed wireless (I hope) and thus new revs or replacements of the Airport product line (their oldest and most reminiscent of their old premium pricing model), are oft-rumored to be bringing some kind of telephone project, might be eying the PDA/phone/mobile web/CE/tablet markets in one or more ways -- in what, a year and a half. Damn.
Not bad.
So yes, as all that ramps up, the smaller jobs of designing new shells and other surprises for the MacBook Pro, Mac Pros and Minis are certainly going to be doable in 2007.
And as they become a bigger company and more of a force in the whole industry, I think you can expect several things:
A gradually increasing number of SKU's. Many people would like to see a mid-range prosumer tower, but towers are the slowest growing segment of the PC market, so that's a maybe, but within the MB, MBP, iMac, Minis, MacPro and XServe lines -- e.g., a MacPro that's really a workstation, like the 8 core machines certainly on the way, which I believe will not REPLACE 4 cores, but be added to them (along with 8 and then 16 core XServes).
That leaves room for a still more upgradeable iMac -- there must be room in that 24" beast. A 15", higher res MacBook -- even while they add whatever new features in the MBP that pros truly need and aggressively price them to compete against other companies. Minis designed from the ground up to penetrate the living room and other living spaces. And more.
Nope. These are not your father's Apple Marketing/R&D divisions.
And that's a gooood thing.

/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[montgomery_burns]

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It can cost more simply because the volume is lower.

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This is circular reasoning-- Black costs more because they sell less. Black sells less because they cost more.
In order to draw meaningful conclusions, Apple would have to sell both black and white Macbooks with identical features, for the same price. And stores would have to stock enough supply of both colors so customers are not influenced by availability.