There might be very good and productive apps for iPod Touch but I think the thing that made iPod Touch far more interesting are the games.

So the question if Apple can make a netbook or not, gets answered after you look at the netbook market and how it is flourishing. Why keep out of it when we know Apple can get away with a price others just can’t?(“We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk” can also mean that we know WE can get away with higher prices .

And regarding Mac OS, how about we keep the iPod Touch software, replace the lower end Macbooks($999) with a convertible, smaller keyboard and small multitouch pad, bring the price of Air down(which is bound to happen – does this has to do any thing with the fall Apple netbook rumor?) and sell this convertible for say $799? I think accelerometer under 7-8″ screen with a keyboard and copy paste will click with more than many.

And the question, can you pocket this thing or not, If you can’t, you can always go for the iPod Touch/iPhone. BUT if you have a need for a smaller form factor but not that small(why are netbooks selling so good?, surely price can’t be the only reason – keyboard?) then an iPodTouch+convertibleNetbook is what you would go for.

I was thinking the same thing about my Mini 1000. Apple could take the basic design, bleach it stick an apple logo on the lid and throw a full version of OS X on it. The only thing I could think of to make it stand out is to have a dual core Atom. At 8 watts the form factor could handle the heat and it would make Apple stand out in the crowd of netbooks, charge $650 for it and you would have a line of people at the Apple store waiting to get one.

Odd, I thought Apple was a believer in the “Dilbert” marketing philosophy: The Company will screw you given any opportunity, firm in the knowledge you’ll go back there tomorrow.

In earlier times, this was known as the “PT Barnum Strategy”: There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute.

Apple has no product that resides in the +/- $500 range that has such functionality, so the creation of such would be a significant drag on its fullsize notebooks.

While Apple’s computer division has enjoyed an uptick in market share since the release of Vista, its worldwide market share (computer/OS-wise), is still bordering on the insignificant. And the only way it can show a profit in this division to its shareholders is to attach a significant premium to its computers. And a $500 netbook would not give Apple that significant premium, unless they opted for the cheapest, least spec’d hardware. And that’s where Jobs says Apple can’t build a netbook without it being ‘a piece of junk’.

Yes, yes – “When we buy a Mac we’re buying a quality product, hence the premium” – but when Macs are now built with the same Intel-reliant parts as everyone else and are built for Apple by a division of ASUS (the creators of the EeePC), what you are primarily paying for is the OS and Apple’s past reputation.

Apple could build a $500 subnotebook/netbook. They just don’t want to.

What an opportunity to sell small apps, games, music and movies to a new segment of the market, or even rent them.

Maybe in this market segment the end game is not the “netbook” price, but the ability to sell content. And the price of the “netbook” would be set at something like a lost-leader.

I believe in the US that Google and T-mobile are doing the same with the G1.

I think the idea that it would be junk, and that OS X deserves a better place, is misplaced. It is (i) to do with how they package and design the product, (ii) I read somewhere that the iphone used a version of OS X, and that already a number of “netbooks” run OS X very well.

The iPhone is basically a phone, that is its primary function, the rest is secondary, and so say that it is a “netbook”, is over simplistic. They are different products sitting at different ends of the market.

The touchpads are a recent introduction and only appear on the laptops, not on the desktops, but the OS is the same. I think most people will accept this as not being possible given the form factor/ size constraints.

Apple has already moved into cheaper and innovative products – ipod, itouch, and iphone. What Apple could do is make a premium brand “netbook” with some of the best features of MacBook and the current best in class “netbooks”. This would be a winner I feel, allowing Apple users to buy a smaller light weight, cheaper computer with OS X. It would also be a new gateway product for current non-apple users.

These are the views of a Windows User thinking about trying a MacBook out

Would be an interesting tablet system, although at that size, I am sceptical that the system will be that fun to use.

I have always struggled with tablet systems for any serious work, and the existing iPod touch fills a nice void between instant web-access and doing real work. Still… Always open to new gadgets!

No threat then from the iPhone. Its merely a CDD (Content Delivery Device)to their iTunes and App Stores. Despite the fact its running a version of OS X, Apple has done everything it can to prevent it becoming as useful as a netbook – no landscape keyboard, no cut & paste, not even so much as a mini-Pages.

Jobs as been quoted as saying that netbooks are a nascent technology he sees no reason for Apple to get involved in. Time was when Apple was the King of nascent technology – leading rather than following (or worse, ignoring). This was, after all, the Company that gave us Newton.

But build a functioning, affordable subnotebook and the rationale for a $1800 Air (or a $1000 MacBook) might be hard for some to make.

No, because then they’d be dealing with a potential tablet/UMPC, lol.

@James…

I agree with your article completely. It’s great to speculate and spread rumors, but it’s just not gonna happen.

I connected a mouse and keyboard to my new Archos 7 and it actually worked: http://bit.ly/cBz5

Not pretty, but you get the idea.