With the incredible success that Acer and Asus are enjoying in the netbook market (going as far as outselling the mighty iPhone this Summer!), many are expected January’s MacWorld Expo to be a place to show off a new mini-Macbook to get the masses excited.
However, the way that Cupertino’s finest has developed products up until now suggests a company that does not operate in knee-jerk reactions or follow industry trends…
These netbooks – small, low speed, low cost computers primarily for word processing and web browsing - have become far more popular amongst cash-strapped consumers in the face of a tumultuous economy.
Eschewing fancy features, massive hard drives and beefy graphics cards for a slimmed down, more practical machine has been the general trend, and bestseller lists on many technology retailers reflect this.
So, in a time when $99 iPhone rumours are doing the rounds, why wouldn’t Apple attempt to take a piece of this pie?
Simply put, Apple are currently in a position where they do not have to enter the netbook sector out of any kind of necessity, nor eagerness to not miss the boat. Apple product launches are calculated, well-orchestrated affairs, taking many years of planning, forecasting and research.
Their methodology seems to be one of re-interpretation rather than of invention. Despite not having come up with the first MP3 player or touch-driven mobile phone, you’d be hard pressed to challenge to ubiquity in the public conscious of the iPod and iPhone. They take existing products and simply provide a fresh perspective on things:
“Why do phones have to work the way they do? Why do phones even have to look the way they do?” they asked.
In doing so, they managed to redefine expectations of what a mobile phone could do, and subsequently the industry as a whole, with the iPhone outselling all Windows Mobile powered phones globally in the third quarter of this year.
Their devices act as replacements for current tech, but arguably more luxurious ones. The Macbook Air is lighter, thinner and more expensive than most laptops in the market, and their netbook would follow the same template.
Apple would still have to provide such additional value or merit to the concept of a netbook, however, that it would cause a seismic shift in the industry. Whether a novel interface, a huge multifunctional tablet replacing the keyboard, a super compact design, it will be sure to differentiate it and justify the higher price.
Rest assured, there would be a higher price point attached to it. Apple has an immediate association with reassuring expense, the premium you pay for having a phone that looks gorgeous, or a laptop that isn’t as susceptible to bugs and crashing on a daily basis.
Creating a netbook that manages to intersect ease of use, that sense of luxury and a low price will be a high hurdle to overcome. Apple’s integration of their operating system with their closed group of computers is something they are understandably protective over. It keeps their machines and software relatively bug-free, granted, but far more importantly it allows them to create a financial barrier to entry for enjoying the slick charms of Mac OS X, whilst also preventing resellers undercutting their prices with similarly specced machines.
The lawyer-inflicted assault on PsyStar and their ‘open’ machines which run Apple’s software (but not for much longer) are proof of this.
Apple’s maestros of manufacturing and marketing have already purported to have ideas for their own mini-Macbook. When it sees the light of day, they will undoubtedly have made a computer that is very small (although not so small as to tread on the iPhone’s toes), very sexy to look at, and very intuitive to use.
But it won’t be right now, and it certainly won’t come cheap.
