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If you have a computer at home weather it be a laptop or desktop, and you own an iPhone, what need is there for a "Netbook"

Because this is America and we buy stupid nonsense like that.

No, all kidding aside, I firmly agree with you and it's what I've been saying, and then "Koobcamuk" quoted me for "hilarity"...whatever that means.
 
When Apple first switched to Intel, I thought they'd take the opportunity then to combine the macbook and macbo8ok pro lines. Build the same body, but put high end stuff in the pro line (FW 800+, eSata, high end graphics, 7200 RPM drives, ECC RAM, etc.) and more consumer-stuff in the low end (low-end FW 400, 5400 RPM drives, standard ram, no eSata, lower end graphics, etc)

I would say that is exactly what happened. ...except why would you put Firewire 400 in one and 800 in the other. It's like building a computer in 2009 and making a high end version that has USB 2.0 and a lower end version with USB 1.1
 
[Emphasis mine]


What? :confused:

Legal is a size of paper. Legal or Letter sized papers. has nothing to do with some restriction from law.
I meant the size to give a general format that is bigger than 4x iPhone, which is too tiny for what I would love to use a tablet for. A 4x iPhone might be good enough for a sizable market, though.
 
- Only has a 3G connection if battery life permits. If so, could you swap in your ATT sim? Make calls with your headphones that have a mic on them?

Oh it'd be awesome to put your iPhone SIM in and go, but you're dreaming. Though AT&T will gladly sell you an additional line + a USB 3G modem for $59 a month. ...just like they do now.
 
The biggest problem I see is, Apple will probably price the netbook at $600-$700. I could understand if it was a 12 inch netbook, but Im sure they'll charge that premium for a 8.9 inch or 10 inch netbook.

My advice, do what most netbook users are doing, buy a $300 10 inch netbook, and run OSX on it.

With Windows 7 shaping up to be a very good OS, Apple really should re-think their strategy right now when it comes to pricing, or making OSX universal.
 
Because this is America and we buy stupid nonsense like that.

No, all kidding aside, I firmly agree with you and it's what I've been saying, and then "Koobcamuk" quoted me for "hilarity"...whatever that means.

The tablet format would have to overtake the notebook market in some way. Or else it is a fifth wheel. So to speak.

iPhone is a music/video ever portable communication device for constant carry.
iTablet (or like the notebooks now) are for larger and more complex computer needs.
Desktops are then for bringing the iTablet info into a better device for archiving or further work with greater processor needs.

iTablet would have to definitely eat away the notebook market or else it is competing against Apple's current devices. I think the Air is a step toward the iTablet, as is the iPhone. They are coming in from either end of the design spectrum--eliminating optical drives, switching to SSD, and limiting the input/output options to a minimum to allow lighter, more portable, computing machines. Apple is very cautiously approaching the next step in portables because they don't want to kick themselves in the merchandise.
 
A lot of netbooks are not what they can be, now its time for papa Apple to come into the game.

As for gaming, uhhhh i know apple never really cared about games, but maybe iPhone will change their mind.

Remember apple was a computer company, not entertaining company; now it seems like table is turning.

Papa Apple? Another believer that Steve Jobs/Apple is their nurturing father who has adopted them as their very own.

Now it seems like the table is turning? What clued you off? Was it 2001 with that little silver soap dish looking thing that held 1,000 songs? Or is it the 10 b'jillion downloads on iTunes? ...or "the funniest iPod ever"? No, must have been Apple TV. In any event, who cares? Darn right they're an entertainment company. Apple was only a computer company because computers hadn't changed entertainment and gaming yet. 9/10 of what we do on computers these days isn't about processing, it's entertainment.
 
for bottom lines.

I really don't think Apple is up for a $399-$599 netbook in any form. I really like the idea of a tablet, but it's got to be $700-$800 to make it worthwhile in terms of features and power.

I read this weekend that Dell is in serious--read critical--financial condition, which is what happens when you endlessly pursue the cheapest possible iteration of any product. The rest of the industry plunges to the bottom...but Apple should stay away. The industry is going through a shakeout and many names we take for granted as players will disappear in the next year or two.

I hope this means the Gateway name will finally go away and that HP will finally kill the Compaq name. Such junk.
 
Depends on how you type it. If you just use carats and function names instead of hunting out superscript or the square root or integral symbols, typing's still faster. Especially when you have to either keep switching in-and-out of tablet mode (which is slow), or hand-write all the non-equation stuff (which is slow as well).

Engineering student.... meaning exponents are the least of my problems when it comes to typing out notes (integrals, diagrams, tables, vectors, and anything else a proff throws up on the board) half of my notes are just to explain that kind of confusing notion that the text book uses in the first place. Not that it's indecipherable in the first place, but I want my notes to be a quick, easy read, reference.

In most of my classes (not all) i actually write very little that i could actually type. Most of the text is in the book; I just derive equations and make diagrams explaining the words. Right now my current system is: type anything I can, then draw anything else on paper and type in things like "ref. fig. 1" on my MB. But that’s pretty tedious.
 
I'm afraid that it will be too expensive.

Of course it will be.
And it will make butt-loads of money. I don't understand the argument that Apple needs to bottom-feed during a time when they can leverage 'flight to quality'.
 
Of course it will be.
And it will make butt-loads of money. I don't understand the argument that Apple needs to bottom-feed during a time when they can leverage 'flight to quality'.
Now I know what to use my employee discount on
 
BINGO!

Beat me to the punch.

Take (1) Netbook = ~ 200.00
Add Touchscreen functionality = ~ 150.00

Subtotal = ~ 350.00

Add magical Apple fairy dust at the factory

Total = $699.00 :eek:

If 'fairy dust' = quality design and usability, then you're absolutely right.
 
The lack of info or facts never stopped anybody on this forum.

The article says touch "panels." Couldn't these just be components for the trackpad of a notebook? There's no mention of a size, which is the info we'd really need to make an educated guess about what product this might be applied to.

Yep one long thread for so little info. Personally though I'm wondering if this is Apples third quarter or calendar third quarter?

What I'm hoping for myself is for an Apple tablet derived from the Touch devices. I haven't seen anything to indicate that this is coming from Apple.


Dave
 
Where does this "Apple isn't interested in selling cheap products" come from? Everyone seems to forget the iPod Shuffle, which in my book is a cheap product at least partly aimed at the bottom end of the market - Apple producing a similar iPhone or Mac wouldn't be out of place.

The Shuffle is aimed at the exercise market not the low-end. Sure it may attract some that can't afford a more expensive iPod, but it's not even close to the same product as a Nano.

Cheap products (afaik) usually means "offers the same functionality on paper." LIke if Apple made a cheap Nano Ipod it would have a fuzzy screen, made out of plastic, slower response times to scroll through menus, cheaper headphones, cheaper sound quality, cheaper battery, bigger form factor, etc. On paper though it would be very close to the Nano.

If Apple produced an Iphone Shuffle it would have no screen and 5 buttons.

I think what Apple doesn't want to do is produce a gimped notebook which is what netbooks are.

I think if they do fill that space they will go with a larger footprint Touch.
 
No one ever talks about temperature...

If apple makes a mini-notebook, that's great... But the biggest problem I've had with Apple's laptops is that the aluminum ones get really hot. The Pro line is by far the worst, making it almost unbearable to type on. Netbooks are designed to be typed on... If Apple botches that, then what's the point?

I'll say this much: I bought and am currently typing on an EEEPC 1000HE. Not only is the keyboard easy to type on, it may be one of the best keyboards I have ever used... even though it's smaller than most normal keyboards.

Further, the battery life on this thing is godlike. When I'm pushing it, it manages 9.5 hours. That's incredibly good.

Before I bought this gadget, I did my research and discovered a strong Hackintosh community being built around the MSI Wind. I was sorely tempted to buy that laptop and hackintosh my way into an OSX Netbook. The only reason I didn't was differences in battery life. For me, battery life is KEY.

So obviously there's a good market for an Apple netbook.
Apple was intelligent (imho) to wait it out and let others test out the market. The fact is, however, that if it doesn't jump into this market by 3rd quarter, it will be in trouble.

This is for three reasons:

1. The market is still in its early stages and each month brings new competitors and better offers. It's not long before one of them hits on the winning combination

2. Windows 7 is being released in the relatively near future, and alongside that comes strong support for touch screens... so far, initial reviews on Windows 7 has been overwhelmingly positive. There's also evidence that touch screens are moving into netbooks, which means that Apple's coming out with one won't be as "whiz bang boom" incredible as a certain touch-screen phone.

3. The glimmer and shine of Apple's stuff is wearing off. Two years ago, students walking into university were all about grabbing an Apple computer. Now I'm seeing more and more students saying "no way I can afford that". I'm seeing people involved in audio work getting pissed off because the MacBook (which was all they needed at one point) no longer has firewire. I'm seeing graphic designers who hate glossy screens saying "I can't get a 17 incher, it's too expensive and it's not nearly portable enough"...

Apple's growth DEPENDS upon people who once used a Windows or Linux based computer moving to an Apple computer. It did this before by making Windows out to be the bad guy because Vista really sucked. But Windows 7 doesn't suck. Which means that now, OSX and the only machine it operates on (Apple) will have to stand on their own merits.

It's the greatest struggle Apple faces...
It's a luxury brand computer that once catered to a specific crowd that was willing to pay extra for what it got. In the last few years, it tried to expand its market by catering towards the average, every-day user, many of whom cannot today no longer afford their computers.

I know many users who LOVE OSX, HATE Apple's computers, and would immediately jump ship if a better opportunity presented itself. These are the "average users". If Windows 7 lives up to expectations, I won't be surprised to watch Apple take a dive in popularity.

Don't get me wrong, I love OSX. But Apple built its success on yearly innovation and a rockstar presence, while riding on the ******** that was Vista. It's hard to keep something like that up. It'll be interesting to see how they handle the "netbook" market.
 
I wish this was a good thing. This very well could be the first big mistake in jobs absence.

Why? Because, one of the following needs to be true:
1. The product will seriously compromise (cripple) OSX.
2. The product will not compete (price wise) with other netbooks.
3. The product will not do 1 or 2, and will destroy sales of the appropriately priced apple laptops.

No matter what, as an investor and developer, this will be awful for the company.

Your #1 is completely false. I have a Dell mini 9 with a complete 10.5 install on it and it runs wonderfully. Every feature. It's better than my dad's 933mhz G4 iBook, and at least as good as my sisters 12" 1.25ghz G4 PowerBook.

The OS (finder, spotlight, etc) is responsive, applications load fast, expose, dashboard, and spaces work instantly and smoothly. Frontrow is AWESOME on it - lets me wirelessly grab my whole iTunes video library in a keyboard friendly, full screen interface. It has enough power to playback my DVD resolution h264 encoded movie files and scale them to screen resolution.

It launches iWork '09 apps as fast as my iMac does, and the apps run great on it (it's a little slower to create a new file after you launch and pick a template - SSD write speeds being what they are). MS Office '08 runs like a champ as well.

I did a 3 hour video chat with my Mom (she virtually attended my sons first birthday party) on a single charge. That means running the webcam, encoding the video transmitting it via wifi, receiving her video stream wirelessly and decoding it onto the screen. For three hours on a 42kwh battery.

It sleeps and wakes instantly, cold boots in under 40 seconds, shuts down in about 20 seconds. It'll drive a 20" LCD via VGA if screen space is an issue. Works with Apple BT keyboard and mouse, if you need though.

In short, there is honestly no compromising OSX on this computer for the tasks that 90%+ are buying MacBooks for.

Netbooks are the happy meal toy of portables. Regular people love them, but for more involved computer centric professionals and enthusiasts they are utter HELL. I'm not sure why anyone aside from a kid or net junkie (a sizable market) would want one.

Tablets are the way to go. They need a letter/legal sized device which is very light and can recognize hand writing while being able to hook up to peripherals and do a wide range of application support.

Yeah, the use of touch screen would have to be a computer with a different position on a table. That's obvious. But, so what? A Cintiq exists and is highly popular...with those who can afford it. If Apple finds a way to make the screen go up and down allowing for a regular keyboard when needed, it will be a success.

I would think that would be likely. My hope is to be able to use Photoshop (or a limited version of it) on a legal sized tablet with stylus recognition... might be a big old pipe dream. You are most likely on target with a tablet that can run enough OSX and have enough function to run Apple productivity apps, minus high power video/sound apps.

OK, I work for a large IT department (we support 50,000+ users with 70,000+ machines). I work with all techs and tech managers. I'm the 3rd person to buy a netbook in my office, there's 2 more awaiting delivery, and at least 2 or 3 more considering.

Almost all tech people I know love their netbooks. They can have a laptop - not a smartphone or balckberry - with them almost anywhere without lugging around a big, heavy computer. They can put them on a users desk to grab files test some piece of hardware without displacing the users junk.

Tablets on the other hand are about as useless as can be. Designed for one handed use but, when you factor in a usable battery, heavier than a ream of paper so you gain nothing. The tablet form factor has been tried and tried and it never catches on because it's useless, except for very specific, usually very fixed installations (in cars for example). Smartphones are the logical replacement for the tablet design, netbooks are simply notebooks for people who like to travel light and move a lot.
 
I seriously hope Apple doesn't release a netbook...EVER. Smaller doesn't necessarily equate to better. Every netbook I've played around with was painful in terms of the keyboard size--the Asus ones are even worse because they decided to put the L and R mouse click buttons on the sides and it's awkward to use ...beyond awkward. The keys are clumsy and small - the thing is just impossible to use.

The tablet idea to me is DEAD. Toshiba, Asus and others tried the table computer years ago - do they even sell them anymore? They were overpriced and just a novelty

Netbooks are the fastest growing category of computers. Nothing else is even close.

Don't like'm. Don't get one. But Apple can't ignore this market segment.

I sell lots of the new 12" HP tablets. AMD Turion-X2, 4GB ram, 320GB HD, ATI 3200. $899. Students love them. We have a hard time keeping them in stock.
 
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