Apple to add more colours, bigger screen to iBook

So says the Taiwanese company making them

Updated Apple will update its new iBook with a range of coloured shells, the company that's producing them on the Mac maker's behalf has let slip.

Apparently there's a version coming with a larger screen, too, but since the iBook's screen already takes up almost all of the space available for the display, we're a little puzzled by this. Unless, of course, Apple plans to introduce a larger model, though this seems unlikely.

Or maybe the company's refering to the much-rumoured LCD-based iMac, which could indeed sport multiple colours and a display larger than that built into the current iMac. Just a thought...

Whatever, the claims come from Taiwanese notebook manufacturer AlphaTop, relayed via Bloomberg. Far Eastern firms like AlphaTop account for the vast majority of the world's portable computers, both from big-name brands like Apple, Sony, Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, and lesser known notebook vendors.

AlphaTop was announcing that it had won the contract to produce the new iBook for Apple, a contract that is expected add NT$800 million ($24 million) to the company's profits. The company wouldn't say how many iBooks it will produce, but it did say that it will make over 345,000 notebooks for Apple this year. ®