Updated Apple will update its new iBook with a range of coloured shells, the company that's producing them on the Mac maker's behalf has let slip.

Apparently there's a version coming with a larger screen, too, but since the iBook's screen already takes up almost all of the space available for the display, we're a little puzzled by this. Unless, of course, Apple plans to introduce a larger model, though this seems unlikely.

Whatever, the claims come from Taiwanese notebook manufacturer AlphaTop, relayed via Bloomberg. Far Eastern firms like AlphaTop account for the vast majority of the world's portable computers, both from big-name brands like Apple, Sony, Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, and lesser known notebook vendors.

AlphaTop was announcing that it had won the contract to produce the new iBook for Apple, a contract that is expected add NT$800 million ($24 million) to the company's profits. The company wouldn't say how many iBooks it will produce, but it did say that it will make over 345,000 notebooks for Apple this year. ®