Is Apple Preparing To Kill Off The White MacBook?

CultofMac’s Ed Sutherland raises the question of whether the white MacBook will end along with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, noting what some Apple-watchers are deeming unusually constrained availability of the $999 MacBook in the U.S., Europe and online, and with the popularity of the $999 MacBook Air as the favorite entry-level notebook Mac, it’s being conjectured that Apple may be fixing to simply discontinue the plastic MacBook line.

There has arguably been redundancy in the currently crowded lower-price segment of Apple’s notebook lineup since the second-generation MacBook Airs were released last October, and frankly I’ve been surprised that the white MacBook has survived this long. If I were shopping in that price range (which I may well be in the near future), the 11.6″ MacBook Air would be my unhesitating choice, and if, as widely rumored, Apple drops its price to $899 with the forthcoming refresh, it will be well-nigh irresistable. Maybe there could be a future for the white MacBook if its price dropped to $799 and it stuck with Core 2 Duo power, but I’m skeptical as to that being the way Apple would want to go.

There seems little logic in Apple selling three different 13″ laptops, and with the 13″ MacBook Pro being a strong seller (IMHO the most attractive Pro package as well as the best value), and the 13″ MacBook Air obviously sticking around, the machine on the bubble is the 13″ white MacBook, with the imminent OS X 10.7 Lion release being the cue for Apple to burst the bubble.