Wrong Reasons For Why No Netbook From Apple
Magnus Nystedt | Sep 26, 2008 | Comments 2
Heng-Cheong Leong writes about why Apple has not launched into the netbook business yet. His evidence is the MacBook Air where Apple “didn’t compromise on the screen, not because it didn’t want to, but because it can’t. The operating system — along with many of the desktop applications — simply cannot work with a small screen.”
I think there is something that Heng-Cheong is missing and it was called PowerBook 12-inch. It had a screen with only 1024×768 pixels and although it’s not great it’s enough for most users. And today it could be made in a more densely package screen making it’s physical dimensions smaller than the PowerBook. And with SDD, no optical drive, and a smaller keyboard, it could be a killer device. Perhaps a bit larger than the Windows netbooks but not by much.
Another thing we need to have in mind although it’s not in Mac OS X yet – resolution independence. Today the menu bar in Leopard, for example, is always the same number of pixels high, whether you have large or small monitor (with different resolutions). With resolution independence every UI (user interface) element could scale depending on the resolution, monitor size, and user’s preference.
A better argument for why Apple would not do a netbook (and I read this somewhere but can’t find where no, sorry) is that Apple is doing well enough with the MacBook and MacBook Air. Customers are ready to pay the Apple-premium and are not too concerned with the cheap netbooks, often a quarter or less of the price of a MacBook and obviously even less compared to MacBook Air.
Personally I think an Apple netbook in 10 or 12 inches format, with keyboard and a multi touch screen (no mousepad) and a swiveling screen (so it can lay flat on top of the keyboard when you don’t need to type), would be a killer. It could have less horsepower than MacBook Air, have only SDD and I think that wouldn’t cannibalize sales of other Apple notebooks much.
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I do not think Apple should go into the Netbook business, instead it should give us an iTablet using the multitouch technology it created for the iPhone. It will be a hot item to have.
I can’t wholly agree with either your article or the one you referenced.
The 12″ Powerbook was ahead of it’s time in terms of what it crammed in to the space, but it was just a boosted iBook G3. The iBooks had 12″ Screens for years, the clamshells only had 800×600 displays and they ran apps fine.
Sure you scroll a little more but with two finger trackpad scrolling it’s a moot point. I agree that Apple ‘could’ release something like a 7″ netbook, but it would be at the expense of screen real estate and that would take away from the experience of both web and computer useage. Apple could theoretically fit a 920 x 640 resolution widescreen in to 7″ package, higher than the clamshell iBook screen in a third of the size of a 12″ screen.
I still disagree about your Mac tablet idea, it’s been around for ages, people just don’t use tablet computers. I have several friends with tiny laptops that turn in to tablets, none of them use that feature anymore as it’s just not a good way to interface with a standard computer OS.
OS X would work as a netbook, I don’t think it should, that’s not it’s purpose, the all singing all dancing media features wouldn’t work.
A hybrid OS X/iPhone OS might work but I don’t see the market for it. Yet.