Can Apple upscale the netbook?
Apple is not the sort of company to compete on price, and price is what the netbook marketplace is all about. So what could Apple do to build a successful netbook-like product?
Wikipedia has an excellent definition of a netbook computer today, and it also defines why Apple is unlikely to ever build a computer that fits the current definition:
A netbook (a portmanteau of the words Internet and notebook) is a small portable laptop computer designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet. Primarily designed for web browsing and e-mailing, netbooks rely heavily on the Internet for remote access to web-based applications and are targeted increasingly at cloud computing users who require a less powerful client computer. Netbooks typically run either Windows XP or Linux operating systems rather than more resource-intensive operating systems like Windows Vista. The devices range in size from below 5 inches to over 13, typically weigh 2 to 3 pounds (~1 kg) and are often significantly cheaper than general purpose laptops ($400), with some even in the $50–100 range under some circumstances.
It is not that Apple could not build a machine that fell within that description. It is that Apple’s philosophy requires it to design and build devices that combine elegant utility with aesthetic elegance, which are two very different things. They combine the exact proper curve of the iPhone with the absolute usability of that mobile platform. Everything Apple builds is that way. So they won’t build a common netbook. But what would they build?
It would be on the large side for a netbook, because Apple would want the user to enjoy keyboarding, and that is not possible with tiny keys. So, let’s say at least ten inches. It would have to be useful in a broader sense than most netbooks, or it would not be an Apple, so it would probably run OS X, perhaps a special abbreviated version, optimized for the cloud.
Once Apple started considering size and weight, they would naturally gravitate to very thin and very light. Maybe something as thin as the Air, but perhaps in plastic to keep costs down. Certainly, the best of the small, power-saving Intel processors and a solid-state drive. Something in the range of a pound or so. Something light, elegant, and eminently useful.
In fact, one could almost think of such a device from Apple as an iPod Touch on steroids, but still well-behaved. An iPhone enhanced into being a real computing device, with more power than the iPhone or Touch, which are already pretty powerful in their own right. Apply those mobile technologies to a new kind of mobile device, and you have what an Apple-built netbook could be.
It would not, however, qualify for the normal pricing guidelines of a netbook computer. It would be beautiful, and it would be the best netbook ever made, but it would not hit the price points. Think somewhere between $699 and $899 if it is more MacBook than iPod Touch, or between $599 and $699 if it is more iPod Touch than MacBook. Either way, it would find an audience.
This is the direction that computers are heading anyway. Small, light, powerful, portable, intelligent, quiet, and easy on power consumption. We have already put the old desktop in a laptop case and not given up a thing. In the future, we will continue to provide all of that utility in smaller and smaller cases, eventually fitting all we need into a case that will fit into our pocket and beg for new methods of input and output that will fit a truly mobile computing lifestyle. It may be that if Apple does build a netbook, it will be the next significant step into that future.
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April 14th, 2009
How can Apple upscale the netbook. I’m not 100% sure, but don’t people buy netbooks because they’re too cheap to buy more expensive notebooks? I’m sure the most appealing thing about a netbook is it’s price. So by working on that premise, any Apple device wouldn’t satisfy the people buying netbooks, because Apple charges more for their products. It were just a matter of netbook users merely liking a smaller computer, then it might be possible for Apple to upscale netbook users.
A tablet device from Apple about three times the size of an iPod Touch would be fine for me. I don’t want a physical keyboard, either. If they want to use up space, then just give me a bigger battery. Eight to ten hours of juice will be just fine.
April 15th, 2009
“It is not that Apple could not build a machine that fell within that description. It is that Apple’s philosophy requires it to design and build devices that combine elegant utility with aesthetic elegance, which are two very different things.”
Apple is a company that wants as much of your money as possible. You won’t see a standard netbook because it would eat up Macbook sales. Period.
Gushing like an 11 year old girl talking about a boy band and romanticizing it isn’t really going to change that.
There is no denying Apple has put out some innovative and game changing products. But please. Macbooks are pretty ordinary and hardly fit your description.
One of the trade offs of a closed system is a lack of choices if it works against the interests of the company. Nothing wrong with that, it’s good business. But trying to wrap it with a mantle of genius and nobility of purpose is dubious indeed. Not having a Netbook benefits Apple margins, not consumers.
By shooting from sales of 187,000 in 2007 to 11 million in 2008 the huge numbers illustrate how taking existing tech and repackaging it to generate wild success isn’t limited to Apple.
Apple snapping up all that iPhone memory would seem to infer they will be addressing that hole from the phone side. It makes sense because it’s not a direct competitor to Macbooks. If it isn’t a single carrier deal like the iPhone it would do quite well.