PowerMac and LCD Rumor WrapUp - Winners and Losers

Apple released PowerMacs and a new 20" LCD monitor on Tuesday. After such a release, we try to trace back to find where information was first leaked on these projects.

PowerMacs

PowerMac rumors have been relatively scarce in recent months. MacBidouille posted information back in December 2002 that March 2003 may be the delivery time for new PowerMacs... but this diverged from Apple's historic 6-month release intervals for PowerMacs.

The first hard information came in early January with (essentially) knowledge of the next PowerMac revision's top speed (stated at 1.43GHz at that time).

The PowerMac release day was hinted at in our Rumor Roundup with Tuesday, the 28th being a (then) unconfirmed date for new releases of PowerMacs, LCDs and iMacs. The iMac revisions have not yet arrived...

LCDs

Rumors of Apple LCD updates have been ongoing for over a year at this time... with first word mentioned by Railheaddesign in December 2001. At that time a 19" LCD was rumored to be in the pipeline. Whether this was based on speculation or true information, it is possible that Apple's plans were thwarted by rising LCD costs during 2002.

Regardless, dropping the 15" LCD in October 2002, respawned LCD update rumors but it wasn't until this month that definitive evidence of a 20.1" Apple LCD finally emerged.

New rumor site, MacWhispers, claimed to have specs and prices of the new 20" LCD with a 1600x1024 rez at $1799 with new enclosures -- but this proved to be incorrect, casting doubts on future information from this source.

Accurate pricing information came again in the Rumor Roundup with a "less than $1300" price point reported for the 20" LCD.

Summary

Each introduction from Apple brings a few surprises -- and while minor information continues to be available, the lead time on rumors has been narrowing. iMac updates are still expected, and hints from the validity of rumors from these PowerMac/LCD revisions will prove to be revealing...