Apple netbook to touch our lives?

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 10 March 2009 05:12

Opinion and Analysis

Yet more rumours abound about an upcoming Apple netbook, this time spurred on by reports in the Chinese language press out of Taiwan. Is it possible that Apple has caved to market demand despite its stated opposition to releasing a cheap netbook product?

The stories circulating concern a passed on report from Digitimes about a Chinese language article in the Taiwanese daily Commercial Times, which mention two companies who are supplying parts for the new Apple product.

The two companies named are Qanta, which was a supplier for the iPhone, and Wintek, which is supposed to be supplying the touch screens that will supposedly be shipped in the third quarter.

The issues here are form factor and price.

Steve Jobs has made no bones about the fact that Apple is not interested in making a cheap netbook for the market. In fact he claims that Apple does not know how to make a US$500 piece of junk.

However, Apple certainly does know how to make a $500 iPhone, which some have described as a computer in the form factor of a phone.

There have also been rumours about Apple releasing a touchscreen MacBook minus a keyboard.

Can we infer from this that Apple has plans to bring to the market a keyboardless touch screen device with a netbook sized screen with many of the features of the iPhone plus more that could be made available on a bigger but still portable device?

It's hard to imagine - especially give Steve Jobs' statements - that Apple will come out with a netbook that directly competes with the offerings of Asus, Acer and others.

If Apple has got a new type of portable computer up its sleeve, it's going to be different and an attempt at supply something revolutionary to this space. It probably won't have a keyboard.

Those looking for a US$500 computer, however, are bound to be disappointed. My bet is that it will come in somewhere under US$1000. How much under $1000 will depend on how much it costs to make a quality product, something Apple will never compromise on.