A New Aluminum MacBook On Its Way?

Charlie Sorrel of Wired reports that Richard Gardner from Citigroup indicates “the much rumored new aluminum MacBooks are already winging their way from China to Apple’s secret underground storage facility.” Secret underground storage facility? Is that like the Batcave?

Of course, there has been speculation of a refresh on the Apple line of notebooks, so could it be possible that Gardner is right? He states that these new MacBooks have a “very thin aluminum casing, an LED-backlit display and an aggressive entry-level price point.” Sorrel points out that the aluminum casing would make sense, since Apple’s lineup is going aluminum in a big way. LED backlighting, he says, also makes sense. “And,” he writes, “the ‘aggressive entry-level price point,’ combined with the iPod price drops, could be the mysterious “product transition” we keep hearing about.”

Katie Marsal of AppleInsider offers more information. She reports that Gardner says, “Field checks confirm that shipments of new MacBooks have begun, with a sharp production ramp planned for September and an introduction planned for early October.” She says that “Gardner also used the bulletin to reiterate his Buy rating on Apple’s badly-beaten shares, which tacked onto Friday’s losses by falling another $6.44, or 4.32 percent, to $142.50 in afternoon trading.” Based on this information, the analyst stands by his statement that September quarter earnings estimates of $1.20 per share on sales of $8.3 billion will be accurate. So, one can’t help but wonder just how much Wall Street needs accurate predictions right now, and whether or not that plays into Gardner’s information leak? Gardner extends support of his prediction by noting, “Surprisingly robust iPod shipments combined with sharp declines in NAND flash memory, flat panel displays and DRAM pricing should allow the company to beat its gross margin guidance despite recent iPod price cuts and the just-ended back-to-school promotion.” He adds that a combination of new products, the geographic expansion of the iPhone and sharp declines in component prices “bode well” for the next quarter. Why is Marsal interested in supporting Gardner’s claims? Perhaps because they are compatible with earlier AppleInsider reports, including one which predicted a notebook line refresh for mid-October. It will be interesting to see how close they come to calling it right.

But the question arises: if this new MacBook was already in the pipeline, why wouldn’t Apple CEO Steve Jobs have announced it at the event last week? It certainly seems worthy of its own moment, doesn’t it? Yes, of course, the event was meant to focus on the new iPod nano, and on the iPod touch redesign. It was meant to launch iTunes 8 and Genius. Still, the “one more thing” that we were all hoping for could have been the newly redesigned MacBook, couldn’t it?

Sorrel thinks there will be other Apple bloggers who will insist this is a fake-out. He’s probably right. But it sure would be interesting to have a new MacBook appear wouldn’t it? And, while we’re on the subject, how cool would it be if that secret underground storage facility were guarded by a three-headed Woz?