New plastic MacBooks imminent: "most affordable" to date

Apple have already been tipped as readying a new entry-level MacBook once this month, and now the second nod to the polycarbonate MacBook line has come, courtesy of AppleInsider.  They've heard that the range refresh will likely be launched alongside the rumored new iMac desktops, themselves described as "imminent", and be the Cupertino company's "most affordable notebook offerings" to date.

Hardware details are unconfirmed; however it's been said that the new entry-level MacBooks will be thinner, sleeker and use Apple's internal battery technology which trades user-accessibility for longer runtimes.  Another source has suggested that the MacBooks will continue to be clad in white plastic, unlike the unibody-aluminum chassis used in the MacBook Pro range.

The new MacBook and iMac lines, AppleInsider suggest, will round out Apple's holiday 2009 line-up, and pave the way for the much-rumored Apple Tablet which is expected to arrive in February 2010.  That would create a broad sweep of products from the $99 price-point iPhone 3G, through the 3GS, Tablet, and topping out at a $999 new MacBook, all under the $1,000 dollar range; Apple's nod to the ongoing economic crisis.