Apple Announces iBook 2001 [Updated]

In a media event at Apple’s Town Hall in Cupertino Tuesday Steve Jobs announced the next phase in the iBook revolution. Just as we reported here a week ago, the new iBook is essentially a miniature, 4.9 pounds version of the popular PowerBook G4 Titanium with a smaller 12.1-inch screen (with 1024*768 resolution) and a 500 MHz G3 processor.

Four versions are available with differences being base RAM and type of optical drive. Configurations include:

64MB/10GB/CD-ROM – US$1299
128MB/10GB/DVD-ROM – US$1499
128MB/10GB/CD-RW – US$1599
128MB/10GB/DVD/CD-RW combo – US$1799

Dimensions:

Weight: 4.9 pounds (2.2 kg)
Width: 11.2 inches (28.5 cm)
Depth: 9.1 inches (23 cm)
Thickness: 1.35 inches (3.4 cm)

Go2Mac reader Woodwynlane noted that the iBook 2001 ranks as the third lightest PowerBook:

PowerBook Duo – 4.2 pounds (1.9 kg)
PowerBook 2400 – 4.6 pounds (2.1 kg)
iBook 2.0 – 4.9 pounds (2.2 kg)
PowerBook G4 – 5.3 pounds (2.4 kg)
PowerBook G3/FW – 5.7 pounds (2.6 kg)
iBook 1.0 – 6.9 pounds (3.1 kg)

The iBook packs a 12.1-inch TFT XGA active-matrix display with 1024-by-768 resolution – which is all the pixels of a 14-inch XGA display in a 12.1-inch display.

All configurations ship with:

500 MHz PowerPC G3 processor
256 KB on-chip cache running at 500 MHz
ATI RAGE Mobility 128 graphics accelerator
8 MB of SDRAM
AGP 2X support
10 GB Ultra ATA hard disk drive
5 hour battery life

Ports across the left side:

v.90 modem
10/100 Ethernet
400 Mbps FireWire port
two USB ports
a new RGB and composite video output port
an AV port

Video mirroring requires the includes VGA cable (left), presenting video on a TV requires the (optional US$20) Apple AV Cable (right).

Apple Store Configure To Order (CTO) options:

20 GB HDD – US$200
add 64 MB RAM – US$100
add 128 MB RAM – US$200
AirPort Card M7600LL/B – US$99
AirPort Base Station M7601LL/B – US$299
Apple AV Cable M8434G/A – US$19
Apple Portable Power Adapter M8457LL/A – US$69
iBook Rechargeable Battery M8433G/A – $129
3 Year AppleCare Warranty – US$249

Miscellaneous notes:

Henrico County Public Schools purchased 23,000 iBooks at introduction – a whopping half of all PowerBook sales last quarter.
Early pictures indicate that the iBook 2001 has two command keys, one on each side of the keyboard.
The sleep light is hidden to the left of the open latch, as can be seen in the video.
The new iBook is not available with Mac OS X pre-installed. Apple should offer a coupon for a free upgrade to Mac OS X with a new iBook purchase, but no word.
The optical drives (including the new DVD/CD-RW combo drive) is tray-loading meaning that it is not backwards compatible with the TiBook.