Comments on: Apple: Netbooks Are Junky Hardware, But We Have Some Ideas

By: rauy

rauy — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:18:45 +0000

hey people! We’re forgetting that it’s Asus’ EeePC 701 who’s the grand dad of all these netbooks. (Just a little reminder)

And also, I do get it how Apple is innovative – they’ve proven their “greatness” in the iPod/iPod touch and iPhone, as well as with OS X which is a beautfifully designed OS, in and out (cleaner code than certain Windows OS versions). But I just don’t understand how Apple guys, especially their execs, have to resort to bashing non-Apple products?

Why would they call netbooks “junky hardware” when they themselves don’t use them?

I think Apple should just keep quiet and leave the bashing to consumers of netbooks.

By: Ted Mac

Ted Mac — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:17:08 +0000

I think Apple COO Tim Cook is just pissed that Apple did not come out with this innovation first. They love to be leaders not followers. I purchased my MSI Wind last August for a 65 day cruise around the Pacific starting in September. I also purchased an external battery supply, The iRecharge, and with the Wind’s 6 cell I am guessing that it will go 10 hours. I have only made it to a little over 8 hours before I gave up, and the Wind battery guage was showing 70% left. I have done our blog of the trip completely on the Wind, and ran into no problems. I have viewed movies with an external DVD player plugged into the USB ports with no problems. The software for this came with Wind. My Skype calls with a good wireless connection is excellent. I have not discovered it’s limitations yet.

By: Ed Fry

Ed Fry — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:00:33 +0000

If you look at the Apple trends, they’ve taken an existing industry niche and added their innovative touch. The iPod now dominates the music player industry, the iPhone has become the inspiration for all new smartphones – the Macs? Whilst they are indeed successful, they’re fighting up against bigger corporations like Microsoft.

Macs have targeted a niche – graphic intensive and creative users and they’ve excelled in that. But how to target that niche where Apple are established with a smaller product seems like a tricky task. And how likely is it that Apple can come up with the ‘iPhone’ of the computer world? What more can you add?

By: bakin9

bakin9 — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:00:47 +0000

The only reason Apple has no interest in Netbooks is price point. They haven’t figured how they can make their usual 50% markup on a usable device costing less than $500 and doesn’t cannibalize their pricer bigger models.

I’m sure once that’s figured, they will truly come out with an “innovative” netbook that makes coffee and sings you to sleep at night.

By: Nicolas Grignon

Nicolas Grignon — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:09:30 +0000

Always the same elitist bull….t! I have a PC who runs Panther and Vista for a fraction of the price of a mac pro and for about the same characteristics. The Airbook was a farce for hyped rich fools, and the next generation of ION powered netbook is around the corner with very interesting specs for less than 500$… So, so long Apple and your future $1000 crap for hyped bozos! The world can run without Apple and its 10% of the market and their over-aggressive stupid ads.

By: silentcon

silentcon — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:48:15 +0000

So if Mac starts selling netbooks, then surely it will come with more features, and when it becomes a hit, all netbooks will follow the hype. I just hope Mac wont be selling netbooks that costs beyond $500.

By: Mr. Mac

Mr. Mac — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:12:39 +0000

This isn’t surprising. In the same way that Apple sees Macs as separate from PCs, Apple’s forthcoming 10 inch device will be different from other netbooks. My guess? It’ll running a tweaked version of Mac OS X, similar to the iPhone. The full blown OS X will be left for the full size Macs.

By: Johnnny

Johnnny — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:07:35 +0000

To get something straight from beginning – I love netbooks, I’ve been PC user all my life (I barely had any time to spend with a mac, and I didn’t like OS X), and I am a desktop user (yeah, I don’t see much point in laptops with huge screens either).

Now after boring anyone unlucky enough to read that, I’ll try to make my point.

Netbooks are junky hardware in one aspect: they are primarily bought by internet junkies. I know that many of you would disagree, but just think about it, an average consumer doesn’t buy it because it’s an interesting gadget, or because he or she simply likes small computers. It’s because they can visit internet from virtually anywhere, in relative comfort, without breaking a bank, or their backs.

Another thing is, when you look at the netbook space today, what you essentially see is a bunch of copies, some better than other, but not much has changed since outing of the MSI Wind. It is rather hard to make something innovative, and yet cheap enough to call it netbook. What Apple always tries to do is be innovative, special and consequently copied. If Sony hadn’t outed the Vaio P, that would be something worthy of an apple, but since everything happened as it did, it’s hard to expect from Apple to say “yeah, the netbooks are great, they’ve got terrific value and they are worth your money”. Somehow, I’m convinced that their goal is to sell their own goods.

One more thing for those left awake for the end (sorry, admins): as a desktop user, I find almost any laptop keyboard uncomfortable for prolonged use (ALMOST, I was pretty amazed in fact by Macbook’s keyboard), and consequently, anything that’s small and thin is pretty close to agony. I understand that it’s not so for majority of you, but for some of us there is some truth in the statement that netbook keyboards are cramped.

That’s my point of view, and no, I have no idea why I had to share it with everyone, but hey, it doesn’t hurt, which means it can only be useful to someone, right?