No Apple netbook? New answer
Apple has found a new way to answer the burning questions about the netbook arena, but this time perhaps it has left the door a little more open to a future Apple netbook-like product.
The problem, apparently, is not what a netbook does. It is more what a netbook doesn’t do. Todd Benjamin, director of portables for Apple, has a fresh take on the Apple philosophy vs. the netbook philosophy, and his answer makes a lot of sense. The netbook, says Benjamin from the WWDC, is designed and constructed to be a consumer of content. It connects to the Web and it watches, reads, and listens. Apple products, on the other hand, produce content in all the areas of consumed media. In Benjamin’s words, an Apple notebook can do “anything you want to do.”
That is the extremely wide divide that would have to be crossed before Apple could enter the netbook marketplace. It may be a largely philosophical difference, but it is an important one. According to Benjamin, it is not primarily a matter of hardware, like a small screen or not having a DVD writer; it is primarily a matter of intent. Making the contrast clear between netbooks and Macs, Benjamin explains, “They don’t have the things that you want to do on the Mac, which is make amazing things.”
This is a more Apple-like answer than those that came before it. The others were dismissive, almost contemptuous, like the famous Steve Jobs line about netbooks: “We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that.”
Many observers think that the Jobs answer implies that the iPhone may be as good (or better than) the netbook in some ways, especially now that the iPhone has added a video capability to produce video content. In it’s native form, the iPhone is lacking some content creation software, according to a PCMag article, which specifically calls out the iLife suite. That is a problem that can be fixed with apps, in most case, though.
The real problem is user I/O. The iPhone screen is not quite big enough for the constant use that is possible on a netbook. Nor is the teensy virtual keyboard a really viable input device. The touchscreen gestures do an excellent job replacing a mouse, and sound can be handled with earbuds. That leaves just typing and viewing areas as I/O problems.
That is where the often-rumored iPod Touch-on-steroids comes in. The size of such a device is critical. It need to be big enough to have a sufficiently large viewing area and virtual keyboard, and still be small enough to easily carry around. It would be nice if there were no hinges. Such a device might require a new type of bag or holster, but it would also usher in the era of truly meaningful mobile computing. Oh, yeah, and it would produce content, too.
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June 10th, 2009
“When Grandma gets here everyone act like you don’t have any interest in going ice skating but pulling taffy is the most fun ever.”
That’s just double jointed blather trying to cover up having no answer to the severe damage a netbook product would inflict on Macbook margins.
Yeah, people are churning out 3D animation on entry level Macbooks. Only the truly hardcore enthusiast is swallowing the “We refuse to inflict anything not best of class on our customers.” spiel.
It’s not going to get any easier. Hardware on Netbooks is getting better and more capable each week.
June 11th, 2009
There was a time in 1985 where their arrogance with the Mac cost them from being the world dominant computer. Are they repeating it with the netbook?
An interface between an iphone and an netmac would be amazing. Schools could dump textbooks. They could sell hundreds of millions.
Naw!
June 13th, 2009
I’m a mac person. Had one since 1984. I now use a lenovo x61 for work. I fly a lot and the battery lasts about 5 hours. Battery in my macbook is a joke; this thing is basically a small desktop.
I’m considering buying a netbook because I do fly all the time. I’d pay $800 or $900 for a mac version of a netbook vs the $500 I’ll pay Dell.
I don’t think Apple sees this as incremental revenue loss. I think they see it as avoiding cannabalizing their low end macbook sales