as for netbook, use similar nVidia ION platform with Atom single/dual-core.
afterall SONY dare to offer invalid netbook (overly-genius, who combine Atom with “performance-hog” Vista) at eyecandy casing&form, with premium price.
Lenovo which own “apple previous enemy, IBM”, also begin to offer Lenovo YOGA?

The best Apple try should be:
1. new eyecandy chassis, nvidia ION platform, regular
form of 11-12″ netbook.
Price near other manufacturer offering.
2. current polycarbonate chassis of Macbook, but
eyecandy colored, with 12″ LCD, with Atom or
lower-end intel chips. T1xxx/T2xxx/T3xxx/T4xxx.
lowest production cost for Apple to produce.
Price lower than recent PolyC Macbook
3. new eyecandy chassis, with form like SONY’s /
Lenovo’s offering. MacPocket or MacYOGA. Price can
comparable with Lenovo’s future offering.

For iPod offering, Apple truly excels. With many eyecandy design, that mostly can attract woman/girls.
Since Apple focused in design, woman market is huge enough. They focused on ‘only sufficient performance ‘ but more on color/design.

Also by offering eyecandy colored Polycarbonate with lower specs, can also penetrate this market well enough.

Many girls, buy SONY or other nice PC design laptop because its shiny/colorful design! e.g. shiny PINK color.
Hard to see girls attracted to buy BLACK Thinkpad, even the performance is high.
The meant, not every person look the aluminium shine looks. Better Apple begin to colorize it. Like beautiful iPOD.

By creating Netbook product doesnt meant Apple lost will lost its elegance/image.
But more than, give the netbook market, Apple touch.
Slightly expensive but more interesting, and the more important, OSX for mass!

1) Apple will not enter the “low end” Netbook market, because they would have to spend quite a bit of money on R&D and then end up only making a small profit on each one sold. It would not be financially viable for them to do that.

2) For a Mac fan to get an acceptable OSX Netbook, they can simply do a bit of Googling, get an existing Netbook (Dell Mini 9 or other such), and with a little bit of tweaking, install a copy of OSX. For Apple, this means that they still make a profit that could be associated with selling an Apple Netbook, but without the cost of R&D. Of course software piracy cuts into those profits, but there are still going to be plenty of people that are willing to bend the EULA, but will still buy a valid retail copy of OSX. This is basically free money for Apple.

3) I think that the most likely next “Apple toy” will be a new generation of the MacBook Air line. They will probably have an optional touch screen, as well as 10- or 12-inch models that will be able to be put out at a price point that is under where the current MacBook line sits, but still above the lower-end Netbooks. This would not take as much R&D, and it builds on an already existing product line. People will buy this “Netbook” for several reasons: because it will have features that put this device a step above the “lower end” Netbook models that are currently out there; and of course because there are people that will buy it because of the fruit on the cover.

Of course this is all just speculaton… Until I’m proven right…

I so agree. BUT … the new 8.9″-10″ netbook from Apple will also take the netbook form into the Gigabyte m912 and Fujitsu p1630/20/10 land. Meaning a swivel touch screen. 850$ will be the magic price and I suspect it eating at least 20% of the netbook market.

I am a Chinese fan of apple laptop.
There is thousands fans in Chinese like me,however,the price is too high for most of them, I bet if the price is around $800,I could sell out at least 500pcs per day.

I dont think separate graphics would really matter in this market segment. If it’s only being used for light internet usage and what not..

Who knows what processors are coming up though.. perhaps intel will copy nVidia’s chip idea with both a cpu and gpu in one?

I think Apple would really have to make a product that stood out and grabbed consumers by the nuts.. Aesthetics is right up their gully.

If they stuck to the basics and used ideas generated by the MBA’s flaws they could have a winner. As for price: Apple is known for their outrageous pricing. If Asus and HP etc. are producing netbooks at sub $500, i’m sure Apple could work some magic for $800??

Who knows.. maybe the netbook isn’t their scene? Being late entrants, they could be seen as copy cats.

Seems possible, and certainly something that would sell very well. I don’t think you’re considering something like this would have on Apple’s margins though, which would obviously suffer from selling something lower priced like this, which might be why, as per Apple usual, it won’t exactly be a low priced “netbook”.

The netbook space is rife with copycats, and could certainly use an Apple target to show them where to go next. Thinner than 1″ thick of course. Nice build quality. Flash SSD drive of course. Nice keyboard, edge to edge with that pesky right shift key full sized.

If they can figure out how to have a narrow bezel around the screen, they could even fit an 11″ display like the Sony TT in a form factor like the typical 10″ netbook from other manufacturers.

Agree they won’t be going smaller than 10″, since they just want to be in this space, not push the prices down. Also agree you might see them push the resolutions up a bit like the HP mininote.

Not sure what else they could do to really make it that special, but 802.11n rather than g is something you’d expect. I doubt the rumor about the separate graphics though…

Not a fan of apple myself but here’s mu two cents.

9-10″ Apple netbook carbon fibre lid with aluminium inside (palm rest, accents etc.). $8-900. Single core Atom, minimum specs to run OS X. I think apple would benefit greatly and perhaps stealthe market share if it’s done properly.

MBA was a flop.

Students have always been an important target for the MacBook’s (and previously iBook’s). My impression is that Apple has been reigning in this market for the last years in the US and have been doing very well in Europe as well. I haven’t noticed a switch among students away from the MacBook towards the netbook yet in Europe (Amsterdam), how is this in the US? I feel that a switch in this market might be a strong incentive for Apple to get into the business of netbooks. My impression is that Apple users with a bigger budget don’t mind paying for the MBA.

The MacBook has traditionally been the gateway drug of choice for OS X. I could definitely see them adding a low end tablet/netbook that would introduce more people to OS X.

w/ the Dock, just move it to the right or left side. I don’t know why anybody hasn’t caught onto this yet. On most LCDs today (desktops included), it’s wider than it is taller, so why not just take advantage of that and put your Dock on the left or right side. It’s more out of the way for me, i don’t have to hide it, and i make it a little smaller anyway but magnify it. On a 10″ i may be more apt to hide it, but I think you should give it a try on the right side on your WindOSX — I even do it on my MBP as i think logically makes sense. It may take a week or so to get used to it, but once you do it you won’t even notice it. Hell, LaunchBar/QuickSilver or now just Spotlight all serve as a quick ‘n easy app/dock launcher so who cares about the Dock except for running instances of doc’s, sessions, etc…

Good idea? Just write some crap about Apple and get your story in Techmeme. This is stupid.

Sadly, that’s probably the best way to go. I would give serious thought to buying an Apple netbook, but only if it was competitively priced.

And that’s never, never going to happen.

Kevin – Once again you provide us with a unique analysis based on critical thinking that is all too rare in this “soundbite” world. JKONTHERUN was great before you joined. You take it to another level. Your contributions are greatly appreciated.

If you really want a netbook experience with the Mac just pick up a copy of OSX for $120, load it onto a mininote and happily dual boot. It will look good on the 1280 screen. Even with the price of the mininote at $629, you’re getting a mac and a pc laptop in one for $749. Great deal!

A netbook doesn’t have to be $400. How about the upcoming U820?

“An $800 “netbook”?
A netbook is supposed to be sub-$400!”

Ummm, so the HP Mininote, the Lenovo S10, the ASUS 1000H and 901, the MSI Wind, etc aren’t netbooks? What?

Netbooks are budget ultraportables. We’ve already had $800 netbooks (I think you could spec the Mininote for that price).

“No classical netbook but a MacBook Air with the dual core Atom A330 and 2 GB of RAM.”

The dual core Atom is about twice as power-hungry as the single core. Apple is too battery life-conscience to do that.

@turn.self.off

I’m more inclined to agree with your vision of an Apple “netbook”. I really see them releasing a jumbo iPhone before an competitively-affordable, full-featured notebook.