Several rumour sites have been reporting that the upcoming MacBook nee iBook will come in various colors. Since the MacBook is targeted at the consumer market, this makes sense.

Even in the iPod domain, the withdrawal of the iPod Mini met with some dissapointment. A quick check on eBay shows that a lot of people are still willing to pay a premium for the color-keyed Minis - even paying more money than the current, higher-capacity iPod Nano that replaced it.

There is even some speculation that the MacBooks will feature the active color-changing technology that Apple patented last year. If the patent is applied to the MacBook, the case will still be white by default but will take on its chameleon properties when the color-changing technology is turned on.

This could be the best of both worlds for Apple and the MacBook user. For Apple - since they won't need to keep several SKUs in stock and deal with complaints about the color selection and stocking levels. For the MacBook user - since they can pick from an infinite variety of colors to reflect their changing mood. Also, there are times when you just don't want to call attention to yourself and turn it off.

The color-changing technology can even be used with some applications - iTunes Visualization, alerts and Growl prompts come to mind.

It also makes for a nice differentiator from the MacBook Pro line - especially if Apple decides to limit the MacBook to Core Solo processors.

And this time around, Apple won't be stuck with a design faux pas like the Flower Power iMac ...

Source: AppleInsider
Picture Credit: One-of-a-kind Pink iBook taken from Jeremy's blog