17-inch MacBook Pro Soon?

A recent AppleInsider report speaks of Apple's plans to release the 17-inch version of its MacBook Pro line before the World Wide Developers Conference.
Historically the WWDC takes place around June, however, the new model might appear even earlier seeing as how Apple is expected to make a big splash on the 1st of April.

Katie Marsal and Kasper Jade report that the new model will feature an Intel Core Duo processor of at least 2.16GHz, which is more of a statement of the obvious than a rumor. However, they do point out that currently the Super Drive is an issue to be addressed for the new model as the 17-inch laptop is reported to be just as thin as the 15-inch model. This is a problem since the 8x Super Drive is not slim enough to fit.

Currently the MacBook Pro models that are out use a 9.5mm thick SuperDrive, rather than the 12mm drives used in Apple's previous line of PowerBook G4 notebooks. If the 8x 9.5mm version of the Super Drive does not become available in production quantities, the new model might use the 4x version or be delayed.

The report also mentions that a 12-inch MacBook Pro model is currently not in the Apple product roadmap. Presumably only the new version of the iBook will be available in 12-inch sizes.