Please, Say It Ain't So...

Of all the latest Apple rumors, this one is the one I most fervently hope that will never come to pass.

MacBooks in colors? It doesn't make sense, no matter how much "individuality" you want to convey by choosing a laptop of a particular shade of puce. I remember back in the "blue dalmatian" iMac era that anyone caught in public with a colorful iBook got some strange looks, and I don't mean the "look at that stylish laptop" kind.

This may sound sexist, but bear with me: Girls were exempt, of course, mostly because when geeks were afforded a close look at - dare I say physical interaction with - a girl and a tangerine iBook, they would most definitely not be gawking at the iBook.

If there are to be "colors", I hope they're white and black, same as the current iPod lineup. They are extremely distinctive products that look extremely good in either color, even if you can, in fact, stuff them in all sorts of colorful and textured rubber, er... coverings.

I've made no secret of my interest in getting a black MacBook to replace my nice (but dated) little 12" iBook, not only because it would look less like an overgrown Tic Tac but also because it hopefully wouldn't look as grubby after a couple of weeks' use (I religiously clean all my pearly white Apple keyboards every now and then, like a rite of purification).

There will always be a niche for non-white, non-grey and non-black laptops, but I can't say I like the idea of Apple going there again (and please don't mention the iPod mini, pretty much everyone I know that got one got a silver one).

Not to mention the utter chaos it will generate in markets like Portugal, where the local representative can't keep up with demand of iPod nanos, let alone two colors of it.

So my current hope is that, in accordance with their usual track record, rumor sites get this one completely and utterly wrong.

Any which way, if it does happen and I'm forced to buy a Lime MacBook because my iBook dies on me and there are local stock shortages, it's going to be a pretty lame product design choice...