I would love to see some of these IPS panels in the Macbook Pro's.
Currently the only things differentiating between the stock Macbook and the 13" MBP is build quality (unibody polycarbonate vs unibody aluminum), Memory Cap (4gb max vs 8gb max), default HDD size (the MBP is actually smaller), and the Pro has Firewire and a SD slot.
Granted the price difference between the MB and the 13" MBP is only $200, but I think the perfect way to distinguish between the two is IPS. Seeing this manifest itself in the iMacs is really unexpected to me given the industry trend as a whole to keep displays as cheap as possible (I was previously just hoping for a simple bump to 1680x1050 on the 15" MBP, which is what I own and will likely buy again in the future), but this gives me hope that better panel technology in the laptops is actually a potential option.
You'll be waiting a long time. IPS on laptops is basically dead at this point. The market has spoken and no one really wants an IPS laptop (5 years ago this was different story). The problem with IPS is it's expensive to make. You'll rarely find an IPS monitor (any size) for less than $500, except when Dell does a fire sale.
Because laptop makers have stopped asking for them, LCD makers stopped making them. Until something else comes along we'll be stuck with TN panels. And they have slowly taken over each market. I've checked some online sites 20" is all TN, 22" has a few old IPS displays, 24" was split 50/50 before the summer, now it's down to 9 IPS out of 100. IPS is left at the high end. And that will eventually go TN, I believe.
As an owner of a LG IPS display I'm miffed that my next display purchase will probably be worse than the one I already have.
Currently the only things differentiating between the stock Macbook and the 13" MBP is build quality (unibody polycarbonate vs unibody aluminum), Memory Cap (4gb max vs 8gb max), default HDD size (the MBP is actually smaller), and the Pro has Firewire and a SD slot.
Granted the price difference between the MB and the 13" MBP is only $200, but I think the perfect way to distinguish between the two is IPS. Seeing this manifest itself in the iMacs is really unexpected to me given the industry trend as a whole to keep displays as cheap as possible (I was previously just hoping for a simple bump to 1680x1050 on the 15" MBP, which is what I own and will likely buy again in the future), but this gives me hope that better panel technology in the laptops is actually a potential option.