Acer definitely wins the prize for being first out the gate with a machine running Intel’s latest mobile chip, the cheap quad core Q9000. However, now that it’s all official and out in the open, people are starting to wonder who’ll be next to launch a notebook with the Q9000.

The rumor doing the rounds at the moment is that Apple could be about ready to launch a 17-inch MacBook Pro running on the Q9000. Apple refreshed the MacBook line a couple of months back and the fact that there was a white space where there should have been a brand spanking new 17-inch MacBook Pro was a little overshadowed by the fancy new aluminum unibody design of the MacBook and the glass trackpad.

However as the weeks go by we’re wondering where the updated "big" MacBook Pro has gone to. The folks over at apcmag seem to think we can expect the MBP update at next week's MacWorld Expo, despite the conference’s Jobsless status. While we’re not so sure about the timing, we're on board with the Q9000 MBP idea. The launch of the Q9000 was played down but a mobile quad core with a core clock speed of 2GHz for $348 is big news. So far Acer is the only company with a Q9000 machine on sale but it’s only a matter of time before the rest start coming out of the woodwork.

Steve Jobs won’t be at MacWorld next week and we doubt he’d miss a launch like this. The only reason we can think of would be he’s ill and not telling anyone but that’s a whole other kettle of is-he-isn’t-he fish. Fresh rumors this morning, by the way, dropped Apple stocks 2 percent.