Apple Computer To Unveil New Products Company Adding One-Pound Computer To Its Inventory

Hoping to reassure loyalists that happy days lay head, Apple Computer Inc. has been dropping hints about upcoming products, like a PowerBook it will announce in the next few days and a one-pound computer for students.

Exponential Technology Inc., a San Jose start-up, is expected to use a computer forum scheduled in two weeks to show off a chip for Macintosh-compatibles that will be twice as fast as the PC microprocessors made by Intel Corp.

The prospect of turbo-charged Macs is one of the hopeful signs at Apple, which is trying to turn itself around after enduring months of takeover rumors, executive changes, layoffs and heavy losses.

Apple has dropped hints about new products in various publications. A recent issue of MacWeek magazine outlined the PowerBook 1400 laptop computer that Apple is expected to unveil Oct. 21. It will be priced between $2,500 and $3,000 and include a CD-ROM drive.

Apple executives have hinted the company would soon unveil a portable computer that would weigh a pound and run the same operating system as the Newton pen-based computer.

MacWeek’s David Morgenstern said the new Newtons will come with a keyboard and an 8-inch screen and sell for $700 to $800.

The first batch will be aimed at school customers and could reach the market by year’s end. A second model, for business customers, should be out early in 1997.