It seems that netbooks are all the rage these days and calls for Apple to produce one of their own seems to be all I hear from the tech pundents. Netbooks may be cheap, underpowered, and mini versions of laptops, but they are having a very big impact, grabbing increasing market share in the process, which is, of course, one of the main reasons, besides the recession, that people are demanding that Apple build it's own.
Of course, Apple is Apple and it tends to 'think different' than most other companies, and they have stated repetitively that they are not interested in netbooks. Steve Jobs himself said something to the effect that Apple didn't know how to make a $500 device that would be anything but junk. However, Apple did say that they had some pretty interesting ideas on how to build a netbook, which rather makes wonder if they will, or if they won't, jump into the market.
I have lost track on how many journalists and how many articles they have written insisting that Apple must build a netbook or suffer the consequences . These journalists, like Preston Gralla, writing for Computerworld, have been hitting hard on the Apple netbook theme with articles such as, " Why Apple will have to release a netbook ." They point out that Apple's traditional higher products are already being hit hard and that the lack of an Apple netbook will eventually hit them even harder, like the old proverbial run away freight train.
In his latest post, Preston Gralla writes:
"In addition, Microsoft designed Windows 7 to run well on netbooks. And just recently, the company also announced that it is developing a netbook-version of Office. It's mum on what that means, but expect it to be very low-priced, or possibly ad-supported and free.
Apple would do well to learn from Microsoft here, and take advantage of the netbook market. After all, Microsoft has taken quite a bit from Apple over the years --- Apple should now return the favor and target netbooks."
To a point, I agree with Preston. However, if the Chinese Commercial Times and DigiTimes of Taiwan are correct, well, Mr. Preston Gralla and others may be about to get their wish very, very soon, because according to reports, Apple may now indeed be actively in the process of building and releasing such a netbook as we speak, and one that could possibly see the light of day in the third quarter of this year! Digitimes is now reporting that Taiwan's Windtek will be supplying touch screens for some new Apple products and the speculation is that some of those new products will include one or more netbooks. The Commercial Times also states that Quanta Computer will assemble any Apple netbook. Sounds good, if that is the case, but, as usually, Apple is being as tight lipped as ever.
So, despite Apple's claims to the contrary, other than simply studying it, could it be that they are now actually in the process of producing a netbook as the Asian press speculates? And just what would any Apple netbook look like? Would it simply mirror what we see in other netbooks, or will it be radically different?
If you ask me, Apple being Apple, I would bet my last pair of starched underwear that any possible Mac netbook would indeed be radically different from any other netbook out there. Apple doesn't just 'talk different', it really does 'think different' and 'acts differently', leading me to believe that any new Apple netbook should end up being somewhat of a 'different' kind of beast. Would it have a real physical keyboard as illustrated (shown above) in a recent Engadget's report, or would it have an iPhone like touchscreen keypad such as Gizmodo's recently shown below? Personally, there is no doubt, in my mind, that the latter would be the case more than the former. Apple, especially under Steve Jobs, has always champion the idea that 'less is more' and I don't see why that wouldn't be the case here.
The smaller iPhone touch screen keyboard is great, but on the larger real estate offered by a netbook, especially if it offers Haptic feed back, it would be radically better and it makes a lot of sense the more I think of it. I love the Haptic feed back that certain other phones feature and I think that it would be, on a much larger canvas, a superior experience and one close to that of using an actual physical keyboard. Apple already has stated that they had some pretty interesting ideas regarding any netbook. Imagine if such a netbook offered a built-in iPhone? This would make such a netbook a super sized iPhone and even though you couldn't exactly slip it in your pocket, like currently, it would still give you possibilities that no other regular sized mobile or netbook could now offer. Also, think of the App Store and the now over 25,000 apps it features. Imagine if the App Store and it's apps could be adapted to run on an OS X netbook? It would give Apple the main selling feature of Windows on the desktop - namely, the most apps ever!
For now, Apple has only stated that they are watching the nascent netbook market. They haven't committed themselves to anything, but if DigiTimes and the Commercial Times are correct, Apple could possibly shake up the netbook market in the way that they have already demonstrated in the mobile and music space with the iPhone and iPod. Windows XP has already blown past Linux in netbook market share, even though it was previously hoped that netbooks would finally bring Linux mainstream. Sadly, for Linux, Microsoft has not only put that to rest with XP, but they are now saying that Windows 7 will be even more successful than XP! The very real possibility that both XP and Windows 7 will drown out Linux on netbooks is not something I'm looking forward to. We need more choices then either Microsoft or Linux. When it comes to netbooks we should also have the choice of being able to use OS X, be it from an Apple netbook, or simply by licensing OS X to netbook OEM's on other netbooks!
Just as some where hoping that the netbook craze would dramatically grow Linux's market share, so too would it do for OS X! Even though I would love to see Apple produce it's own dedicated netbook, I still would rather see Apple simply license OS X to other netbooks makers. Yes, even though I'm totally convinced that Apple would make the best dang netbook out there, the most important thing would be to license OS X, thus allowing OS X's market share to sky rocket, exposing more and more people to the benefits of an OS other than that from Microsoft.
Netbooks, to my way of thinking, are only a short gap measure. In these difficult economic times where people are pinching pennies, netbooks make sense. In better times, however, netbooks are simply not powerful enough to meet the demands and the needs of most users. This means that, after hooking them on netbooks, Apple would be very well positioned to entice OS X netbook users to upgrade to it's much more powerful, much more capable, more expensive and vastly more desirable laptops, and desktops, if and when the economy eventually improves.
Of course, all we have now are hints that Apple may be coming out with a netbook, a touch screen one at that. Windows XP and 7 and Linux are all capable of running fast and efficiently on netbooks. How about OS X? I'm convinced that it will run just as well, if not better. The proof - it already runs beautifully on even smaller devices - the iPhone and iPod Touch! OS X should be able to equal, if not out perform Windows 7, XP or Linux on netbooks. In fact, it might even be a far superior experience! That's because Snow Leopard promises to offer new, under-the-hood, Apple technologies such as Open CL and Grand Central that will give it the edge in everything, including netbooks! Snow Leopard will be dramatically slimmed down, faster, more secure and stable, and, as a direct result, should be primed to become the perfect OS for a netbook, which frankly, due to their paltry hardware specs, could use all the help they can get.
Personally, netbooks are just a curiosity to me, because they are simply too underpowered. For people of like mind, they pose no real threat to Apple's existing laptop line, so Apple shouldn't fear licensing OS X at least on netbooks. The only real value, the only real desirability of netbook's are their lower cost and their portability! I would much rather, for example, loose or have a netbook stolen than that of loosing an expensive MacBook, and for those reasons they have great value as great travel accessories, but nothing more.
Still, in conclusion, I want to see Apple build it's own netbook, or better yet, to simply license OS X to netbook OEM providers. The main reason, as stated earlier, is to see OS X quickly gain greater market share, as well, to seeing it shake the current netbook foundation to the ground. I want to see how Microsoft's responds, and to see how the Linux world reacts. Not because I hate either OS, because I like and use them both, but rather simply because I believe that by bringing Apple's considerable innovation to this nascent market, it should end up resulting in more serious competition and innovation on the part of Microsoft, Linux and Apple, as well, that should prove in the end, in being beneficial to both the netbook market, as a whole, and to that of it's users, you and me.
And that's my 2 cents 4 this Monday, March 09, 2009
UPDATE: CNet's Executive Editor, David Carnoy, has this interesting theory that all Apple has to do is to considerably lower the cost of the MacBook Air and - presto - you would automatically end up with the coolest and most desirable netbook of them all! I like that theory, but, most likely, it won't happen. Bummer!
