PARIS, FRANCE - An Apple director reiterated on Wednesday comments made earlier this year that the company has no plans to announce a Mac laptop powered by a G5 processor for some time, and that technical issues of putting the chip in a small PowerBook have not yet been overcome.

Tom Boger, director of Appleis worldwide product marketing, told The Mac Observer that consumers shouldnit expect the G5 in a portable for the forseeable future.

"The new iMac G5 (desktop) is thin, but (the G5) is not thin enough for a laptop right now, "Mr. Boger said. "There are great challenges in putting a G5 processor in a laptop. The issues range from power to cooling and its overall size...Youire not going to see a G5 in a laptop anytime soon."

Mr. Boger ruled out any G5 laptop this year, and would not even speculate when such a product would be available.

There has been much anticipation and rumor of G5-powered Mac laptop since earlier this year. Chipmaker IBM has made major improvements in its technology to create faster, cooler and smaller G5 processors. Big Blue has sunk billions into installing state-of-the-art chip-fabrication technology into several of its massive production plants, including one in Fishkill, N.Y.

Industry experts report, however, IBM has been unable to effectively make the G5 overcome many technical issues. Existing versions of the G5 chips canit run in laptops because they generate too much heat and consume too much energy. Experts agree keeping the inner enclosures of the laptops cool enough to prevent the processors from malfunctioning have proven difficult.