I'm looking at getting my first mac, and wanted to know if there's a good time of year to buy.

With Christmas coming up and the recent updates to the powerbook, will apple have any similar updates for the ibook in the next few months or any promotions in Jan for the existing iBooks ?

I don't mind buying if an update is in a few months, but I'd hate to buy 6 weeks before one !

any advice, thoughts or rumours ?

July 26th was when the iBooks were last refreshed. That is only about 3 months ago. Apple tends to update their product lines every 6-9 months so we're 1/2 or 1/3 of the way through the product cycle. I wouldn't expect new models until February at the earliest, but Apple has surprised me in the past.

Always buy it when you need it!

macrumors.com maintains a log of update cycles. I would concur with Ken's remarks above, having just bought two iBooks...

I wouldn't expect any new updates until the intel switch....so maybe june 2006. buy now.

I say between the hours of 4 and 5 are always a good time to buy.

Absolutely wait if you possibly can till the Intel models in the spring.
This is not going to be "your average update" and is therefore worth the wait.

Now, if you were in the market for a top of the line PowerMac, the Quad is sweet -and won't be much better for I'd say 18 months

Absolutely don't wait until the Intel models come out, whenever they come out.

While the Mactel notebooks should be significantly faster, there are downsides:
- you would be an early adopter and there will be teething pains;
- classic applications will not run on Mactel;
- you have a long wait;
- there's nothing wrong with the current iBooks (I replaced my 4 year old iBook G3 with one last week). The features are terrific and it runs great.

Not to mention that Apple said they are going to START putting Intel processors in Mac starting in the second half of 2006 and will be transitioning the whole line-up over the course of a year (so until second half of 2007). There's no guarentee that the iBook will have Intel processors "in the spring" and maybe not even until 2007.

Thanks everyone, I'll hang off until Jan 1st and then see if there are any decent used books.

Maybe Santa will be good to me !

“Without getting into specific dates at this time, sources familiar with Apple’s Macintosh hardware roadmap say the company is striving to unveil a completely redesigned set of Intel iBook laptops just in time for next year’s K-12 educational buying season, which takes place around April or May.”

http://www.gadgetell.com/entry/60