One more datapoint for why no dual cores...

Dell has announced a number of new products at CES. Among them is a new laptop - the Inspiron E1705, using the dual core Yonah's. Like the Acer, this is a high end laptop - in fact a 17" model in this case. Cheapest price is £2299 (though they already appear to be discounting it to $1999 on dell.com). For that, you get a lower quality/res screen, combo drive, 1.83Ghz Yonah, and an 80GB 5400 rpm disk. Also at that price it comes without XP Pro. A fully-loaded model comparable to 17" Powerbook lists (after discount) at $3046 (contrast current 17" PB at $2599).

So, that's another datapoint why none of the cheaper new Intel macs are going to be dual core.

Indeed at these sorts of prices I think it is likely that the first dual core Powerbooks (if they use these chips) will be MORE expensive than current machines (though of course they will perform substantially better). And if Apple makes use of the LV dual cores, then these will also carry an initial high price.

I'd be happy to be proved wrong. Last year, I didn't believe they would introduce a Mac at $499, so track record in this area is not good. But this seems too much of a stretch to me.

With the appearance of dual core Yonah laptops though, it might at least increase the likelihood of such models appearing from Apple sooner than I had originally thought (original estimate Q3).