Ultra-Portable MacBook Likely at Macworld San Francisco 2008?

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that the likelihood of an ultra-portable MacBook is about 85% at Macworld San Francisco.

Munster bases this prediction on circulating rumors about the ultraportable MacBook that have been making the rounds amongst Mac rumor sites over the past few months.

"As Macworld approaches, reports of an ultraportable MacBook are following patterns of previously expected products that eventually materialized," analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients. "We believe these reports are legitimate and continue to expect Apple to introduce a MacBook with a significantly smaller form factor."

The new ultraportable MacBooks are rumored to be aluminum clad, 50% lighter and "strikingly slimmer" to the existing 15" MacBook Pros. They are also expected to incorporate NAND Flash memory to improve battery life and boot times.

Macworld San Francisco takes place January 14-18th 2008 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.