More Apple Netbook Rumors Pinpoint Foxconn as Manufacturer

[Anuba]

I always found the MacBook Air quite awkward for what it is especially with netbooks around. It's trying to cash into the premium market with the thinness and light weight only to get kicked to the around by ~$500 netbooks.

It might be time to rethink this strategy.

Yeah, the MBA sticks out like a sore thumb in their product line and given how minimalistic the lineup is (with gaping holes in some places), it seems strangely redundant to have three different 13" laptop models (WhiteBook, UMB, MBA). So what they could do is introduce this new tablet thing with the MBA processor, in a considerably cheaper package. This will perhaps cannibalize MBA sales, but that's all good... then they can quietly discontinue the MBA 6 months down the line due to poor sales, that way it will look like the MBA died all by itself, which is much less embarrassing than killing it off right away (which would make it look like Apple is admitting the MBA was a bad idea).

 

[Sabon]

This is Apple's chance to add another piece of hardware to your growing collection. I think that rather than limit the function that it has i.e.: netbook it should build upon or integrate with your current macs and technology needs... this is what I mean, if they added an infrared port that enabled you to send signals to your home AV equipment and had the ability to send signals to x-10 or home automation equipment with the inclusion of the touch screen it would be the best remote control on the market that would be fully programable, who wouldn't buy it? An iSight camera could allow for video ichat in a much more portable device than the laptop ... this would appeal to the kids out there that currently text this will help grow the market share. In addition with software like delicious library the isight could be used as a portable barcode scanner to create libraries of your DVD's or an inventory of your tools or even a shopping list that could have the groceries waiting for you at the supermarket. The back to my mac functions mean that the main storage can be on your home computer that you can now access from anywhere thanks to the new time capsule or airport software so it does not need a large hard drive and can use a 8-32 Gb ssd. The tablet could be used as a tablet for photoshop with the addition of a stylus or even a mouse replacement if used as a big trackpad. If the tablet had a dock it could be used as a second screen for dashboard or even rss feeds. It would make a much better e-reader than anything out there. I think that this is the approach that Steve will make when he introduces it upon his return... Much like the iphone when it came out... it is so much more than a netbook and we will have to pay for it. I know that if it had the features listed above I surely will.

They aren't going to put in anything that most users won't be using. At most you can hope that a scanner company has something like the iPhone/iTouch port that they can connect to for their product.

I'm not saying I wouldn't like a scanner built in as I use, a couple times a year, Delicious Software too. But to have everyone pay for that hardware is not likely to happen. There are other things that they want more and there are more of them wanting it.

I think the days of adding IR ports on Apple products is probably done. Again, you can hope that a company can connect to the port on the iPhone but it is more likely that companies will build in wireless networking into their products first.

An isight camera is a possibility.

A netbook is not going to run PhotoShop.

 

[sterlingindigo]

Touch typing please?

I sure hope it's NOT a 10" iPhone/iPod tablet.

The touch screen part is intriguing. I can't see doing any kind of serious touch typing on a 10" tablet/pad (maybe) but could definitely imagine a gesture and/or pen capable screen and/or touchpad.

I don't think it will merely be a small e-machine. I bet you will be able to do some remarkable things with it and it will be small like a netbook size only with more features. And it wont be cheap looking either.

I'm hoping for a 9" or 10" Air with some enhanced features or some small sexy clamshell with zero bezel, keys and additional touch capabilities.

 

[macerroneous]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

Something tells me...

What can you sell for $500 that's not a piece of junk and that won't cannibalize iPod and iPhone sales?

I bet we're back to that clamshell device which has an iPhone tray where the trackpad belongs.

This device, in essence, is a screen, a keyboard, an iPod dock, some ports, and maybe some hard disk space. Maybe an ARM chip to coordinate all the i/o. This device requires you to buy the iPhone(touch), so there's no cannibalization. Also, this explains why they needed to open the dock to peripherals in OS3.0 Moreover, you need the HD dock output to run the 10" screen, which will NOT be a touch screen.

Since the only touch screen will be the iPod, this ought to be unexpensive to build, allowing a $400 base price and still maintain a 50% margin.

Unfortunately, this sounds a lot like a folio. I'd prefer an iPad.

 

[Eidorian]

Unfortunately, this sounds a lot like a folio. I'd prefer an iPad.

We all know how Palm's turned out.

 

[MikeDTyke]

I just have to laugh at all those who claim tablets are dead, windows has proven it`s a non-starter, etc etc.

Apple has proven it can build a highly usable & successful tablet platform, they've already sold 30 million of them as of the end of 2008.

Question is whether it`ll have a physical keyboard either attached or as an optional accessory.

I think from the bullishness of Apple regarding it`s multi touch on-screen keyboards and the fact that building a dozen or so keyboard variants for a device they aren`t completely sure they`ll flog millions of mean it`ll probably not include one as standard.

I could envisage Apple leaving this to the 3rd party market. Release the tablet with a bluetooth HID profile or a keyboard protocol offered via the ipod dock connector. Then you`ll have a dozen manufacturers building keyboards and cases with inbuilt keyboards. The fittest design will win out and Apple doesn`t have to risk/spend any money to do it.

My personal design favourite would be a case that hinges down the longest side to reveal a wired keyboard with an inbuilt battery for longer trips away from the power socket.

M.

 

[Anuba]

How do you know it sold below expectations, you have access to some internal Apple documents or what?

Please don't cry, but...

http://www.itpro.co.uk/166020/macbook-air-sales-below-expectations
"While MacBook Air is turning heads, it's not opening wallets..."

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0810/gallery.holiday_gadgets.fortune/3.html
"The Air sits in the not-so-glamorous 52nd position on Amazon's most popular notebook list..." (CNN/Fortune lists the MBA as one of the 9 top tech flops).

Mac360 calls it the "21st Century Cube", while cnet calls it "Cube 2.0".

 

[polaris20]

I sure hope it's NOT a 10" iPhone/iPod tablet. I already have those.

Where did you get a 10" iPod Touch? Link?

 

[Sabon]

The iPhone and iPod touch have flash.

Built in non upgradeable flash. I thought you meant upgradeable. I guess I was thinking wrong.

 

[steve333]

They are Made in China-cut the crap, Apple

Apple can stop whining about how they can't make a computer for this or that price point. Their computers are Made in China just like all the other electronic garbage we feed on. Cheap labor, cheap manufacturing, unfortunately cheap build quality to go along with it.
If it's going to be made in Taiwan I could understand the price points, but if it's made in Mainland China?
Give me a break, Apple.

 

[hashholly]

As long as one can buy a MacBook for $999 it's hard to say how much more a tablet could cost than the normal $500 range. Unless the unit is very small - a bigger Touch or different type of iPhone or whatever...

Its going to be along the lines of a 10" Touch with full OSX + App's in the dashboard. I dont expect this thing to have a keyboard, and because its a tablet your already looking in the $700 range....

Everyone keeps talking about it cannibalizing the macbook, but it wont anymore than the new Uni-body Macbooks cannibalize the sales of Macbook Pro's. for 200-300 less you get a slower processor (in the form of an Intel ULV), still no firewire, as many ports as the MBA, no keyboard, and you lose 3" of screen real-estate.

 

[polaris20]

Apple can stop whining about how they can't make a computer for this or that price point. Their computers are Made in China just like all the other electronic garbage we feed on. Cheap labor, cheap manufacturing, unfortunately cheap build quality to go along with it.
If it's going to be made in Taiwan I could understand the price points, but if it's made in Mainland China?
Give me a break, Apple.

If they do it in aluminum like the other MB's, I can see the price going up a little bit because of that, but yeah, I agree. It shouldn't be too astronomical over regular netbooks.

 

[Stately]

Sounds cool, but I'm really longing for that famed tablet. I wonder if they would consider making a 10" Pro. Hmmm . . I wish it was OLED screens they were ordering. It would be great to have a netbook like Kyocera's concept phone running full OS. Just dreaming I guess.

 

[Goona]

Please don't cry, but...

http://www.itpro.co.uk/166020/macbook-air-sales-below-expectations
"While MacBook Air is turning heads, it's not opening wallets..."

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0810/gallery.holiday_gadgets.fortune/3.html
"The Air sits in the not-so-glamorous 52nd position on Amazon's most popular notebook list..." (CNN/Fortune lists the MBA as one of the 9 top tech flops).

Mac360 calls it the "21st Century Cube", while cnet calls it "Cube 2.0".

What you wrote doesn't prove jack, unless you have some internal Apple documentation to prove that the Air did not exceed their expectations, you don't know as much as I do of how successful the Air is for Apple. Meanwhile you have other companies like Dell making similar laptops like the Adamo despite it being a "failure" for Apple, lol. Meanwhile Apple is still selling the Air and updating despite it being a "failure". As they say life goes on.

 

[JonHimself]

The way I see the apple laptop landscape panning out is:

Laptops:
light - macbook, heavy - macbook pro
Ultra-portable (for lack of better word consider this might be a tablet, netbook, etc)
Light - new device, Heavy - macbook air

If you want to run full OSX apps (ilife, adobe, etc) in an ultra-portable you get the the macbook air. The new device would be for browsing, im'ing, watching video/listening to music, etc... just a thought taking into consideration other products already available from Apple.

I WISH that whatever comes out would let me go to starbucks, edit photos in aperture and update my website in because that's what I WANT it to do but realistically I'm going to have to buy an Air to do that.

 

[Eidorian]

What you wrote doesn't prove jack, unless you have some internal Apple documentation to prove that the Air did not exceed their expectations, you don't know as much as I do of how successful the Air is for Apple. Meanwhile you have other companies like Dell making similar laptops like the Adamo despite it being a "failure" for Apple, lol.

Once again another hyped but stillborn product like the MacBook Air since netbooks are around.

 

[Anuba]

What you wrote doesn't prove jack, unless you have some internal Apple documentation to prove that the Air did not exceed their expectations, you don't know as much as I do of how successful the Air is for Apple.

Well, then again you're a pathological Apple apologist who can't stand the thought of Apple failing at something, which always makes for a useless conversation -- so if you don't mind, I'll return to talking with regular Apple fans now. Fans good. Apologists bad.

 

[Goona]

Well, then again you're a pathological Apple apologist who can't stand the thought of Apple failing at something, which always makes for a useless conversation -- so if you don't mind, I'll return to talking with regular Apple fans now. Fans good. Apologists bad.

Thought so, you don't know if the Air is a failure, just talking out of your ass as usual.

 

[sterlingindigo]

Where did you get a 10" iPod Touch? Link?

Thanks!

I meant, I can't see myself holding a 10" iPhone up to my ear or one fitting in my arm band when I'm out jogging. Although it would be easier to text and drive at the same time. Especially if there were a video camera that could display the road in front of me while in split screen mode or something.

 

[ULFoaf]

Any idea how Sony's Vaio P is selling?

This is probably what Apple would be competing with in terms of price.

My impression is that it isn't blowing anyone away. Apple's will be innovative or they won't do it.

 

[Eidorian]

This is probably what Apple would be competing with in terms of price.

My impression is that it isn't blowing anyone away. Apple's will be innovative or they won't do it.

It has an excellent display, GPS, and Built-in HSDPA but it's bogged down by running Vista on an Atom processor even with 2 GB of RAM.

 

[t0mat0]

Has anyone got figures of what an ARM Core 8 with a GPU be able to do vs a Core 2 Duo, Atom/Ion?

Any word on a rotating screen of a netbook that could then shut with a touchscreen on top of the device to be used like a slate?

Is the delay to not get one out prior to 10.6 indicative? Yes, Atom is ok, but NVIDIA has shown you can get more out of it, and the ARM Cortex A8 has shown ARM to be very good in terms of power usage. We've got 10.5.7 in the wings, we're awaiting a significant Snow Leopard build, and an earnings call on Wednesday. NAB's on and Final Cut Studio is apparently ready to drop an update - Sounds like there's a fair bit to wait for till WWDC.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/apples_tablet_to_be_based_on_arm_cortex_architecture

Drop PPC and pick up ARM support?

 

[farmboy]

The baseline iMac probably costs $500 to make. Steve Jobs was talking BS out of his butt when he said "We don't know how to make a $500 computer that is not a piece of junk." He said that because it makes macs look even better that they are so expensive and overly priced.

And the whole point of a Netbook is to purchase it CHEAP, and they are popular now because of the awful economy. I'm doubtful that Apple will make this Netbook cheap.

Come back when you understand that there is way more to a product cost than merely the sum of components.

 

[BTW]

If it's priced more than current netbooks, then it just becomes a slightly-cheaper MacBook, and then begins treading the price range of some very decent full-featured PC laptops near the $900-1000 price range. Not sure if Apple can pull this one off unless they shave their profit margins. It would sell quite a bit then.

They can pull it off if it is subsidized with a mobile card and plan by your national mobile carrier (e.g. AT&T or Verizon). They may initially sell them for $599 if a two year contract is included.

 

[ULFoaf]

I see something along the lines you describe

I just have to laugh at all those who claim tablets are dead, windows has proven it`s a non-starter, etc etc.

Apple has proven it can build a highly usable & successful tablet platform, they've already sold 30 million of them as of the end of 2008.

Question is whether it`ll have a physical keyboard either attached or as an optional accessory.

I think from the bullishness of Apple regarding it`s multi touch on-screen keyboards and the fact that building a dozen or so keyboard variants for a device they aren`t completely sure they`ll flog millions of mean it`ll probably not include one as standard.

I could envisage Apple leaving this to the 3rd party market. Release the tablet with a bluetooth HID profile or a keyboard protocol offered via the ipod dock connector. Then you`ll have a dozen manufacturers building keyboards and cases with inbuilt keyboards. The fittest design will win out and Apple doesn`t have to risk/spend any money to do it.

My personal design favourite would be a case that hinges down the longest side to reveal a wired keyboard with an inbuilt battery for longer trips away from the power socket.

M.

I think an iPhone-like touch interface will be likely. I occasionally try to "touch" my Macbook after using the iPhone ...

I think a keyboard will at least be an option.

I see a device that would be better than an iPhone for internet access (bigger, faster) but less so than a Macbook. It would have to be for "light" usage, meaning getting on the internet or reading email while lying in bed or on the couch. l feel the need for such a device, and have been tempted to get a Dell Mini 9.