Iria

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - For the Mac faithful this time of year is a special one: The always lively annual Macworld conference that Apple Computer Inc. and co-founder Steve Jobs host in San Francisco.

Web sites concerning all things Apple abound with rumors and speculation that swirl weeks before the event and Jobs' keynote, to be delivered on Tuesday.

This time around, analysts say their money is on a revamped line of notebook PCs that is sorely needed, more deals with media companies for a larger mix of content on the recently announced video iPod and possibly, but less likely, a new flash-memory-based iPod.

"Apple's laptop line desperately needs to be refreshed," said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies. "In that context, I wouldn't be surprised to see a strong updated line of laptops."

Apple, whose market-leading iPod digital music player has revived the company, is in the midst of shifting to microprocessors from Intel Corp. and away from the PowerPC chip it has used for years. Apple has said it will start selling Intel-based computers by the middle of this year.

But many analysts have said for months they expect an earlier introduction of some Macintosh models, particularly ones using the older G4 processor.
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Read More / Source: Reuters