Apple denies report of new iBook

Yesterday, Bloomberg ran a story quoting Wang Hsin-wu, a spokesperson for Apple’s Taiwan contractor Alpha-Top Corp., who said there is a new larger-screen iBook that will be introduced in July. Wang also said the new iBook would come in a variety of colors.

Many people were skeptical of the report, noting Apple had just released the latest iBook model on May 1, less than a month ago. A spokesperson for Apple has confirmed for MacCentral that the report is false.

“The Alpha-Top spokesperson quoted in the article was incorrect in regard to Apple’s iBook plans. What he said is not true,” an Apple spokesperson told MacCentral.

Apple’s iBook is available in four configurations: For $1,299 ($1,199 for education), the base iBook comes with CD-ROM drive, 10GB hard drive and 64MB of RAM. For an additional $200, you can up the RAM to 128MB and swap the CD-ROM drive for a DVD-ROM drive. For $1,599, you can replace the DVD-ROM drive with a CD-RW drive. And for $1799 you can get the CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo drive iBook.

Apple confirmed earlier this week that the combo drive-equipped iBook originally available only as a build-to-order option from the Apple Store, would now be available as a retail option.