More Punch in Apple Portables

Apple Computer more or less invented the modern notebook with its first PowerBook in 1991. Then, as has so often been the case in the company's tortured history, it sat back and watched IBM, Toshiba, and others make a huge commercial success of its innovation. With the debut of the iBook, the first portable designed from the ground up as a consumer product, Apple is making a bid to reclaim technological and design leadership.

Unfortunately, especially since the iBook seems ideal for the educational market, it's going to be at least late September before anyone can buy one. Worse, advance orders will keep supplies tight until well into the fall. But the iBook isn't the only portable in Apple's arsenal. The new PowerBook G3 is not as eye-catching as the iBook, but it's a winner for Apple's core market of graphics-arts and multimedia professionals.

The new PowerBook is the sort of big, do-it-all notebook that is fading away in the Windows world. But there, the market for high-end laptops is dominated by execs who don't do much heavy-duty computing and who are willing to trade power for portability. Top-of-the-line PowerBooks are bought for such demanding tasks as video-editing and animation, which need all the power they can get.

Superficially, the PowerBook looks like a minor revision of the notebooks introduced a year ago. It has the same striking design, with a big white Apple logo on top. But a closer inspection reveals dramatic engineering changes that the rest of the industry ought to study.

The most important is battery life. The PowerBook G3 is a true desktop substitute, with a big, bright 14.1-inch display and PowerPC G3 processors running at up to 400 MHz, making it the fastest notebook on the market. Typical battery life in Windows machines in this class is under three hours. While Apple's claim of five hours is optimistic, I was able to get a good four hours per charge, even though I spent much of the time videoediting. That's the sort of task the 400-MHz model I used is ideally suited for, but one that really sucks power. This improved battery life is due mainly to the IBM-designed processor, the first to use power-thrifty copper technology. As a bonus, the PowerBook also runs cooler than Pentium II notebooks.

The other major breakthrough is in weight. The new PowerBook G3 is about a third of an inch thinner than its predecessor and weighs about 1 1/2 pounds less. Even in a loaded configuration, it weighs 6.4 pounds--half a pound less than an IBM ThinkPad 770.

While the PowerBook G3 aims at an audience of Apple loyalists, the $1,599 iBook is an attempt to duplicate the iMac's success in creating a new market for Apple. I won't be able to do a hands-on review until it becomes available this fall, but some distinguishing features are obvious from Apple's prototypes. The colorful two-tone case is one. And though the iBook is big and a bit heavy considering its modest 12.1-inch display, that bulk buys ruggedness at the expense of portability. A standard Ethernet port makes attachment to networks a snap. Add the built-in handle and relatively low price, and you have a computer ideally suited for students from elementary school through college.

The other major innovation the iBook offers is a wireless networking setup called AirPort, designed by Lucent Technologies Inc. The combination of a $99 add-in card for the iBook and a $299 base station allows an iBook to connect to the Internet from anywhere in or around your house. (3Com plans to offer a similar product for Windows this fall.)

Unfortunately, Apple users are going to have to wait to get software as good as this hardware. The Mac operating system is showing its age, and it has fallen behind Windows, especially Windows NT, in the ability to run multiple programs, crashproofing, and security. This is especially a problem for high-end users. The expected shipping date for the solution, Mac OS X, has slipped from this fall into next year. Mac OS 9, a minor update of the current operating system, is scheduled for release in October.

Still, the important news is that Apple has followed up on its iMac success by again becoming a significant innovator in portable computing. At a time when most of the industry is straining to make cookie-cutter commodity hardware as cheaply as possible, it's a pleasure and a relief to see some creativity in consumer computing.

Questions? Comments? E-mail tech&you@businessweek.com or fax (202) 383-2125

By STEPHEN H. WILDSTROM

TABLE: The New Apples to Go

                    POWERBOOK G3          iBOOK

Processor           333-400 MHz           300 MHz

Memory (std/max)    64/384 MB             32/160 MB
Disk drive          4-10 GB               3.2 GB
Display             14.1 in.              12.1 in.
Dimensions (in.)    10.4 x 12.7           11.6 x 13.5
                    x 1.7 in.             x 2.1 in.
Weight              5.9-6.4 lb.           6.7 lb.
Price               $2,499-3,499          $1,599


DATA: APPLE COMPUTER INC.