PowerBook Rumors (17 and 15inch)

PowerPage claims a dual 17" Powerbook is in the stars for 2004:

The latest from the campus is that the 17" PowerBook will be dual processor by 2004, or should I say sometime in 2004. Apple wants to be the first mass produced dual processor laptop on the market.

While MacWhispers reports 15" Powerbooks are ramping up, with the possibility of 970's in the PowerBooks in the future:

The new 15.4-inch PowerBook has recently been contracted to the same assembly plant that is building the 17-inch PowerBook. We have been told that "integrating the IBM chip into both products has been underway for some time," and that a PPC 970 variant of the largest PowerBook is "only slightly behind" its mid-size brother.

The IBM PowerPC 970 was announced by IBM last year (2002) and has been the subject of much speculation and interest in the Mac community. Multiple sources have indicated that the 970 will find its way into Apple computers. The first incarnation is likely to be the PowerMac line -- while eventual PowerBook integration is expected, the timeframe is unknown, with MacWhispers providing the only source of rumors that such integration will happen sooner than later.