Comments on: How Should Apple Address the Netbook?

By: gspence

gspence — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:28:19 +0000

I say Apple needs to build one. I would buy it tomorrow if they made one. I have a unibody Macbook Pro and an iPhone and do a lot of international travel. I would leave the Macbook Pro at home and take the Apple NetBook any day!! Apple makes awesome devices big and small and if you priced it at $600 or $700 and had the same form factor as the Air then the whole world would buy it.

By: Horatio8

Horatio8 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:00:52 +0000

Your statement that in Netbooks most ports are absent is incorrect. My Dell Mini 9 has 3 usb, ethernet, vga out, mic, and headphones. This is pretty standard for the category. I do agree that an optical drive is not a feature. I think there is a market space for an Apple netbook that is priced around $1,000 and offers enhanced video and sound.

By: ppgreat

ppgreat — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:47:08 +0000

How Should Apple Address the Netbook?

Hel-loooo, netbook.

By: Daisy

Daisy — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:47:13 +0000

couple quick things: it’s Achilles heel, not heal:)

also – where is the $700 unsubsidized price for a 16GB phone coming from? full retail on one is $499, which is definitely more than most netbooks but still a couple hundred less than the $700 i saw here – unless this isn’t referring to american prices, which i (perhaps wrongfully) assumed?

to address to actual issue, i have an aspire one running windows7. it’s got the standard atom, 1gb ram, and a 160GB hard drive. aside from lacking a discrete video card, it’s actually a hair more powerful than the 15″ powerbook g4 that i own. when it came down to either replacing the HDD/Keyboard in the powerbook (to say nothing of the cost of buying a new battery, because mine is shot), it was more cost effective to purchase a netbook than to repair the powerbook. i have a mac pro as my main machine, so i was mostly using the powerbook for the market the netbook sits in – internet, email, that sort of thing.

that all being said, i’m very satisfied with my purchase. total was $412, tax included. the six cell battery gives me roughly 5 hours of battery life with wifi on, and brightness to a minimum.

i will agree that any apple take on a netbook would likely be radically different from anything currently on the market. i have a special love the the 12″ powerbook, which was indeed a full featured notebook with all the trimmings, in a pretty tiny case.

lack of an optical drive is fine, apple already brands its own external superdrive, and third party options are plentiful. my aspire has no lack of ports – three usb 2.0 ports, ethernet, AND vga. not to mention two card readers. i can envision an apple netbook sporting a pair of usb ports, and maybe a mini display port. assuming they used the atom, pairing it with nvidia graphics (aka – the ‘ion’ platform) would be far better than the integrated intel graphics on most netbooks now, but iirc intel makes it difficult to get the atom for a decent price using anything but intel graphics. i’m not entirely convinced apple would go with the atom though, given it’s rather poky nature (not that i have any complaints).

the glass trackpads on apple’s current notebooks are simply massive compared to current netbooks offerings, so it’d be interesting to see them reconcile that. most netbook trackpads really suck. maybe a multi-touch screen is the answer, but if that’s the i see it manifesting itself in a portable tablet style device with no physical keyboard.

of course, all this supposes that apple addresses this market as it exists now, rather than redefining the whole thing as many expect them to, ala the iphone. it’ll be interesting to see.

By: AdamC

AdamC — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:57:43 +0000

The Apple netbook will be a handheld (PS Semi will be very critical here). And it is the only way for it not to cannibalize the sales of their laptops. Market share numbers contribute nothing to the bottom line of the company and in this tough business environment every cent made counts.

By: JC in Ottawa

JC in Ottawa — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:34:34 +0000

Apple’s greatest asset is the ability to run OS-X on an ARM platform:
- Much lower power, with integrated GPU. It could be the same die as the next generation iPhone, only multicore Cortex-8 running higher clock speeds.
- Microsoft Windows cannot compete, as it’s x86 (power hungry Atom+GPU)
- Advanced features, such as Instant on, and push e-mail in sleep mode
- low power = smaller heatsink = longer battery life
- Will not cannibalize Macbooks profits

By: Ben Huebscher

Ben Huebscher — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:32:06 +0000

Let’s not forget that Apple made the first “NetBook” years ago and called it the eMate!

By: Schell

Schell — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:50:57 +0000

That’s a very good point. I need something smaller than my MBP, but bigger and more ‘computer-like’ than my iphone. Maybe a net tablet or something?

By: Monstamac

Monstamac — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:46:02 +0000

Netbooks are the wrong answer to the right problem. Mobile and readable access to our information on the go, whether that be traveling, or simply away from the desk. An iPod Touch the size of a paperback novel would be near perfect ( or even a little bigger ). The Sony ebook reader is the perfect form factor. It doesn’t need to be smaller, you have your iPhone. It doesn’t need to be a “Computer”, or you’d take it with you. I hold out hope that this is where we are heading, and if Apple doesn’t do it, I hope someone else does. I need it now and I don’t need yet another laptop, however small.

By: Schell

Schell — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:39:53 +0000

As a frequent non-business traveler/backpacker I can think of nothing that could be better than having an Apple netbook to stuff into my backpack to use when I need to send an email, reserve forward bookings, booking flights, checking in,etc..