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Tim Cook: 'Ideas' for a Netbook, iPhone Price Changes, iMacs?

I love the idea of keyboardless use

plumbingandtech said:
no hardware keyboard.

instead a iphone like virutal keyboard on the 12 or 10 or 9" screen.
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I could see a netbook with just a large trackpad. It might get tricky for slow typers but you could use a multi-touch sequence to bring up a keyboard (thus telling OS X that you are typing now). Good use of a 4 finger swipe!

If Apple is going to hit the netbook world, I would expect something in the 10 inch range. 12 competes with their Macbook lineup and 8.9 has shown some issues with usability.
 
Hmmm, I'm not convinced.

Jobs has been gone for what, a month or two? And Cook is already starting his own plans...

I'd like to see an Apple netbook, so I am not complaining, but I just don't see it likely...
 
macFanDave said:
is way too overpowered for most people I know. For a lot of people, web browsing and e-mail is all they need and the computer that meets that low standard was available about 10 years ago! I'm unusual among the people I know because I'd like to do CAD and video editing, so I still would not be completely satisfied with a netbook. A non-trivial number of gamers have moved from the PC (including Macs in this context) to the Wii and other gaming platforms.

Computers became ubiquitous when they were de-emphasized as computing machines and promoted as communication devices. A netbook is a good communication device even though it is a pathetic computer by today's standard.

I'd like to see Apple do it brilliantly, but I don't expect cheap.
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"Web browsing" is a very vague and ranging topic. It's especially vague considering sites like Hulu and YouTube, which offer streaming video. You don't want to rely on some underpowered netbook to visit sites like this. But even sites that aren't totally video-driven are adding more video and more graphics to make the pages look better. Connection speed is one part of the speed equation, but so are the guts of the computer being used. Fast-forward 3 years, and it'll probably matter even more.

So my point, if I have one, is you don't really spend money to have the superfast computer now. You spend the money to not have a piece of crap in a year. My dad has an iMac G5, and I have a C2D MacBook Pro. They're 2 years apart, and the difference between them is night and day. But his iMac is still capable of doing almost anything, just not the absolute latest stuff (artist lessons in Garage Band) that requires a C2D processor. People who rely on these netbooks will be upgrading more often because they'll find some niche use (family videos on Facebook or something like that) that will render their computer obsolete long before people with real, actual computers have a useless paperweight.
 
I don't know why people like netbooks? Because they are cheap? I don't know why i should use Windows XP on a netbook? I like the notebooks of Apple.
 
Any idea's of when netbook's could be coming if they are?

My family is looking for a cheap Mac laptop and we have no idea if its a good time to buy the new Unibody or if we should wait for cheaper netbooks.
 
twoodcc said:
i'll believe it when i see it. though i do hope i see an apple netbook soon though
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I think the chances are good that Apple will bring out a tablet/netbook.

There is a market for a bigger iPod touch that you could use as a video display (iTunes), a book reader (kindle), and internet (netbook). This makes more sense for Apple than a smaller MacBook; Apple would rather bring out a profitable next-generation iPod than a stripped-down, low-margin MacBook.

Apple could sell a $399-$499 touch that would compete very well with netbooks that are $100 cheaper. They're already making money on a $229 touch, and a 6-inch model would basically be the same specs with a larger screen.

That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.
 
realistically speaking, the mini is dead. Apple's looking into netbooks to replace their offer at that price range.
 
The only quote in that article from Tim Cook is "Tim Cook stated that since Steve Jobs announced his leave of absence, he was spending more time on new products, how Apple could take the iPhone into new markets and examining iPhone's business model,"

And we get NetBooks from this... how?
 
Chris Grande said:
The only quote in that article from Tim Cook is "Tim Cook stated that since Steve Jobs announced his leave of absence, he was spending more time on new products, how Apple could take the iPhone into new markets and examining iPhone's business model,"

And we get NetBooks from this... how?
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Looks like Jobs is not coming back after all.
 
Finally

Personally, I'm looking for 9" or 10" (Air book?) if AAPL would only hurry up and get one to market, enough stalling already. Dell's got the Mini 9 and 12 with a Mini 10 and the Adamo coming soon. Meanwhile ASUS, Sony, Toshiba and others have been in the mini notebook/netbook market for some time now.
 
Porchland said:
There is a market for a bigger iPod touch that you could use as a video display (iTunes), a book reader (kindle), and internet (netbook). This makes more sense for Apple than a smaller MacBook; Apple would rather bring out a profitable next-generation iPod than a stripped-down, low-margin MacBook.
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I just don't see Apple releasing a stripped-down notebook.

Porchland said:
Apple could sell a $399-$499 touch that would compete very well with netbooks that are $100 cheaper. They're already making money on a $229 touch, and a 6-inch model would basically be the same specs with a larger screen.
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It would do well for Apple to up the specs a bit, especially if the mini-tablet has multitasking and mobile iLife. They could still keep a decent price point, especially if they started at 16 GB.
 
Sounds like there may be some cool stuff on the way. I can never quite trust things that analysts say though. For every good one there seems to be one who reads Macrumors and uses that as fact! Sounds like this analyst might be one of the good ones though.
 
Give Apple time to analyze and observe the growth or fail of the NetBook market and then they'll come up with something amazing and innovative like they always do.

Apple = Best company in the world of the early 22nd Century.

Ams.
 
h.21 said:
So a netbook is pathetically underpowered, but a MacBook is "way too overpowered"? Either you're a troll, or you have NO IDEA what you are talking about. I'll let those who DO know what they are talking about draw their own conclusions, just as I have.
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A computer is never "overpowered" until:
a) It can encode 2 hours of uncompressed 1080p video to an MPEG 2 file in less than 1 second;
b) Predict all weather and earthquakes accurately for the next millennium;
c) Finally solve the SETI...;
d) run Crysis decently :p

;)
 
iMacmatician said:
It would do well for Apple to up the specs a bit, especially if the mini-tablet has multitasking and mobile iLife. They could still keep a decent price point, especially if they started at 16 GB.
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I totally agree.

I was more or less saying that the touch is a netbook in need of a larger display. Re-enclose the touch in a 6-inch screen, and you've got yourself a netbook. If Apple could up the storage to 16 GB and still hit a $399 price point, so much the better.

I think Apple could market the tablet enclosure as better than the other netbooks on the market because of (rather than in spite of) the lack of a keyboard: 1. if you can type on an iPhone touch pad, you could could certainly type on an even bigger touch pad, and 2. it's much easier to handle a panel on the fly than a typical laptop.
 
Apple needs fresh ideas...

Nothing against Jobs, but younger people need to start refreshing the company.... Good for Cook!:p
 
The thing I like about my touch is that it's pocketable. Make it larger and it will become pointless because it is no longer as portable,harder to type on etc.

What I would like though is to plug my touch into a larger screen and keyboard for those times when I do need the bigger screen and keyboard. I believe the pocket pcs had the ability to do that. I know the Newton had the ability to be plugged into a larger keyboard not sure about screen. So not so far fetched probably less so then an 8" touch.
 
Fidel vs Raul... Steve vs Tim

Apple is starting to look like Cuba... Since Fidel Castro stepped out after 5 decades of dictatorship, Cubans can buy DVD players, started using cell phones, alas at $0.50 per minute, they have internet cafés and lots more freedom than before. Baby steps, for a communist country, but Raul is doing a better job than his older brother... Change is always good, healthy and refreshing.
:cool:
 
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