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Apple will not do a netbook

by on26 October 2009

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$999 is as low as they will go

Apple released a new $999 low-cost white polycarbonate MacBook last Tuesday, and our sources now tell us that this low-cost option is as low as the company is willing to go. While a variety of low-cost netbook-like options were tested, the company just wasn’t satisfied with the performance; and as a result they have elected not to play in this market segment.

The netbook segment has been hot lately with a lot of major players now offering a variety of “me, too” netbook options to keep up with the demands of consumers. We tend to think that the link between actual low-end laptops and netbooks continues to blur, with netbooks first starting as small 10-inch units, but now a good number of them have reached almost 12 inches. In addition, the hardware performance has been cranked up as well.

The latest $999 low-cost white polycarbonate MacBook is a 13.3-inch design that weighs 4.7 pounds. The screen only has a resolution of 1280 x 800 using an LED backlit high gloss widescreen display. It uses the 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of memory with a 250GB 5400 RPM hard drive. It also includes both an optical drive and wireless as part of the package, as you would expect. This is not really that bad of a deal for $999 and it does compare at about the same or a little more than similarly priced Windows laptops at the same price point.

The decision for Apple to not release a netbook may actually be more significant due to the fact that the company has a tablet product that is on the drawing board. While it is widely known that in many ways this product is an overgrown iPod Touch with a 10-inch multi-touch display, it is likely that Apple sees no real need to launch a netbook product when they will have this product that will fill the space at a price point that is likely less than this $999 MacBook.

The Apple tablet could be used for the same things that the average netbook is used for. The majority of netbooks are not being used as full fledged laptops, but instead are mostly used to browse the Internet and check Email. Apple’s tablet product will, of course, do this with no problem at all, so why do a netbook at all when the profit margins are so narrow and you have to really sell a lot of them to make any profit at all?

Apple may have had this plan all along, but it could be that they have just seen the light and realize that they just don’t need to be in the netbook market space. After all, if you had something like the new Apple tablet upcoming and you know it is going to cost less than you lowest end laptop and yet do the same thing as a netbook, then why waste the effort and investment? Only time will tell if we are right, but it surely does seem that Apple does have it all figured out this time around.

Last modified on 26 October 2009
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