When Steve Jobs first let the phrase "consumer portable" drop on the Mac media, he declared it would ship in the first half of 1999. Now we sit one month away from MacWorld New York, decidedly in the second half of the year. Though it's late, rest assured that P1 will finally debut at MWNY.

With all the Lombard shipping problems, how can you even be sure that P1 will be there? We've posed the same question to our sources and they tell us one factor will guarantee P1's arrival at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. That is the fact that Steve Jobs is taking a 'very personal interest' in the day to day development of P1. Apple's engineering teams are now working literally around the clock to prepare P1 for MacWorld. While the level of its functionality is not known, a working P1 will be there. For Apple, not having a P1 ready to show at MWNY is simply not an option. Lastly, the idea that P1 might be scrapped altogether is completely ludicrous.

It's nice to be able to look at the machine, but the question for so many out there is about the ship date of P1. This is by far the most anticipated product Apple has shipped since the iMac, and Apple is sure not to have a repeat of the Lombard shipping problems. Thus, they're going to build up a large stock of the consumer portable before shipping them, giving you an estimated ship date of somewhere in late August, early September. While an earlier date is possible, sadly a later date is more likely.

For those that don't know all of P1's details, it's the fourth corner of Apple's hardware strategy. While there already professional desktops and portables, there is not yet a portable consumer machine to complement the iMac. For details on specifications, visit our info page. Lastly, come chat about P1 with us tonight at 9 to 10 PM Central Daylight Time at our reader chat on IRC. For details on how to get there, cruise to our IRC page.

Written/Edited/Published by Doug B. Landry
Logo by Jon Iverson
Apple, Mac, Macintosh, Mac OS,The Apple Store, and Powerbook are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
©1998 Doug B. Landry. All rights reserved. All or part may not be reproduced or distributed without prior consent.
Coded on a Apple Macintosh Powerbook G3 Series from Baton Rouge, LA