Rumor: 'MacBook Touch' in the Works

July 25, 2008 — -- When it comes to Apple, it doesn't take much to set tongues a-wagging. A slim Steve Jobs at the Apple Developers Conference in San Francisco last month has led to endless speculation about the CEO's health and perhaps, according to analysts, may have caused a stock dip.

Now, after a mention of a mysterious "future product transition" on an earnings conference call, bloggers, analysts and die-hard Apple fans are focused on dissecting exactly what new products the company may have been vaguely revealing.

The comments came during a conference call this week involving Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer that discussed the company's second quarter earnings. It was during that call that Oppenheimer reportedly mentioned the "future product transition, which I can't discuss today."

"We will deliver state-of-the-art new products that our competitors just aren't going to be able to match," he continued.

The brief, perhaps innocuous comment appeared on several blogs the next day alongside a rumor that analysts say has been floating around for years -- that Apple would debut a touchscreen laptop.

Many die-hard Apple fans told ABCNews.com that they were excited by the prospect of a touch-screen anything from Mac.

"I would buy it in a heartbeat," Matt Vreeland, a doctor in Pinehurst, N.C., said in an e-mail to ABCNews.com. "I have used Apple products since entering college in 1985 [the original Mac] and never regretted it. Every time I stray, I realize how well-designed Apple products remain."

Thom Rouse, a graphic designer based in Trenton, N.J., said he would definitely buy a Mac tablet.

"When I go to make a purchase, they're my first consideration -- maybe my only consideration," Rouse said in a phone interview.

Todd Mason in Los Angeles wrote: "It's not so much a fad as a reality. The products are simply better and more people are discovering that fact."

The rumor of "MacBook Touch" appeared on the blog MacDailyNews, attributed to an anonymous tipster.

"Think MacBook screen, possibly a bit smaller, in glass with iPhone-like, but fuller-featured Multi-Touch. Gesture library. Full Mac OS X," the tipster wrote.