ITWire

Following many rumours of an Apple “brick”, Mac Tablet PCs, a Mac netbook and new MacBook designs (after many years of essentially the same design), all will finally be known come October 14, or for us Aussies, October 15 thanks to the timeline.

Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer has also suggested a new Apple product that would reduce margins, delight consumers and dismay competitors in a call with analysts a few months ago, further fuelling the never-ending Apple speculation over what breakthrough they’re about to launch next.

Tech news site The Inquisitr has come out with a claim that Apple will be launching a US $800 notebook, bringing forth Mac OS X’s power and goodness to ever more people, fighting back against the threat of the Atom-powered Netbook and the current global economic crisis.

Gizmodo has a rumour roundup of what Apple’s “brick” product will be, from a Mac Tablet, through to a wireless USB hub, and even a product line that will “break Windows” by having a brick thrown through it.

Although a Mac Tablet sadly seems unlikely given Apple’s reluctance to introduce one, which I personally think is a major shame, a cheaper Mac notebook would undoubtedly be very popular with consumers, and if the “brick” really is designed to smash Microsoft’s Windows, this is one surefire way of doing it.

Of course Apple doesn’t usually just rest at one small change, and given the hype over the “brick” rumours, we can safely expect something sensational. It’s Apple, right?

If not, Apple’s share price, having already dropped from over US $200 per share to less than $100, could well tank further, which doesn’t do Apple – or Steve Jobs’s share options – any good. Nor customers!

So... in 5 days, the world will get to see Apple’s latest technology designed to send its sales into the stratosphere and put as big a splotch as possible in the view from Microsoft’s vista.

Let’s hope the “brick” smashingly lives up to the hype, and doesn't instead land with a thud.