Hey! Psssssst. Did you know that Apple Inc. is planning a netbook? It’s a touchscreen. It should cost around $599. And maybe it contains a strand of unicorn hair as its processor, too...
OK, sorry. The sarcasm wells up in me because let’s face it: the Apple netbook rumor is the rumor that Just. Wont. Die.
The idea of an Apple netbook has been percolating through the industry for months ever since an analyst mentioned he had “triangulated” and figured out that Apple would release a netbook (or two) at January’s Macworld. That didn’t happen. But lately there’s been a resurgence in the speculation level thanks to a report about the 10-inch touchscreens that Apple has ordered from Taiwan. The Taiwanese manufacturer, Wintek, was swift to confirm that Apple is a major client, but that’s as far as it went.
So we all just have to wait. But it’s worth considering whether it would make sense. In the anti-netbook column, we can start with this: Steve Jobs said last October that Apple didn’t feel netbooks were ready for prime time and that the iPhone was in fact already in that category, anyway.
Also, consider that netbooks are light computing platforms that cost less than $500. Does Apple make anything at all in the computing category that goes for $500? This is a company flourishing in the high end of the market, after all. “We don’t know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk,” Jobs rather snottily said during the third quarter earnings call.
And finally, even if the rest of the traditional computing sector is slipping amidst rising netbook popularity, Apple is seeing growing sales and recorded its best quarter in history for the fourth quarter of 2008. It sold 2.5 million Macs, up from 2.3 million one year ago. And the iPhone saw an 88-percent unit growth in sales in the fourth quarter from one year before.
So why would Apple craft up a netbook? Well, for one, ABI Research forecasts that manufacturers will ship 200 million ultramobile devices, including netbooks, by 2013. And the netbook market will grow at least 100 percent this year alone. That’s a nice chunk of opportunity for Apple to bite into.
Also, if Apple ignores the netbook opportunity, will it find itself in the catch-up position? Even if Jobs said the iPhone is Apple’s netbook, we all know it isn’t. It’s a smartphone. And it’s not the No. 1 smartphone, either: IDC says Research In Motion Ltd. leads in the United States with a 47.5 percent market share, up from 40.4 percent in the third quarter, while Apple’s share dropped to 22.3 percent in the fourth quarter compared to 30.1 percent in the third.
Either way, it will be big news as Appleheads, tech journalists and gadget geeks rejoice in having another Apple product category to talk about. Because, you know, the never-ending well of news that is the Apple iPhone just isn’t enough...
I just want to know either way, man. Until then, I guess it’s sarcasm for me.
