Apple tries to rebound with iBook. I'm Fred Fishkin with Bloomberg Bootcamp. You have to give the design team at Apple Computer credit for generating excitement again with the introduction of the new iBook.. It's the slimmed down, elegant white and light successor to the original iBook. Product manager Linda Frager...

"I think the most amazing part is that it's only 4.9 pounds. So that's two pounds lighter than the current iBook. It's also 1.3 inches thick, which is the thinnest consumer portable on the market in its price class. And it's actually just about the size of a piece of paper."

And it includes features such as multiple USB ports... .Firewire for connecting to digital camcorders... Ethernet... and a built in antenna for wireless networking. Apple is hoping the design will not only be popular with consumers... .but will also give it a boost in the education market ...

"It was designed for life in the backpack. So it's very durable. In fact it's about twice as durable as the old iBook."

I was ready to criticize Apple for not including its new operating system OS X on the iBook and other new computers. But as of this week... that changed... when Apple decided to bundle the operating system two months earlier than planned. While the 1299 entry level price is fairly competitive... .for the same money or less, many Windows based notebooks today include a DVD drive. On the iBook... DVD tags another two hundred dollars onto the price. Bootcamp, I'm Fred Fishkin, Bloomberg Radio.