Apple Touch-Screen Netbook?

je ne sais quoi writes "The Apple rumor mill is churning today. Reuters and the DOW Jones news wire are reporting that an anonymous source in Taiwan has leaked that Apple has ordered some 10-inch touch-screens from WinTek, the maker of the touch-screen for the iPhone. It looks like an Apple netbook could possibly be in the works for a delivery date in Q3 of this year, in time for back-to-school sales. CNET and Engadget have completely unsubstantiated mock-ups."

Who wants this?

[cayenne8]

Obviously I am not in the market for one of these netbooks, but, I'm just wondering, WHO is the large target audience for these small screened, underpowered computers?

Is it for people that ONLY do a little websurfing and email? Even with that...why not pony up just a few more $$ and get a real laptop?

This is a question in general about the netbooks, not just the Apple one.

Stock

[Drivintin]

I am starting to think a controlled leak is the best way to manipulate your stock.

Dirty Screens

[Spazztastic]

Now you can have a netbook with smudgy fingerprints all over the screen to match your iPhone.

Re:Who wants this?

[nicolas.kassis]

Cause they already have a laptop but it's a pain to carry the thing around for your average meeting or what not. Plus, tons of people get them for college since they are cheap. The couple hundred bucks does make a difference. And they aren't really that underpowered. 2 years ago a mini9 would have been a perfectly good laptop.

Re:Who wants this?

[prefec2]

The good things about netbooks are:

- They are cheap
- They normally run hours without a recharge
- They are small and lightweight so it's easy to carry them around
- For most day by day tasks they are good enough
- They boot fast, so it's more or less like using a real notebook (I mean these paper pencil things)

The bad things are:
- The screen is too small to do big tasks
- They cannot be used for complex calculation problems
- They have not enough storage for your torrented movie collection

But the important thing is, netbooks are gadgets. They are cheap and they are good at the tasks they are designed to do. They are not fully fledged work machines. But hey, a fun car is not a truck either.

Re:Who wants this?

[AvitarX]

Funny I thought the exact opposite.

I wonder who is the target for large over-powered laptops. I mean, they don't have enough power to do real work, they're big and bulky too.

Use a desktop when called for, and a small thing you can cart around should be a netbook.

Re:Who wants this?

[onefriedrice]

This may not apply to you, but most of us don't use our mobile computing devices to simulate weather patterns or crack encryption algorithms. We have beefy desktop or server machines for that, and if we need that power while out and about, we can always just ssh or remote to the powerful machine. Otherwise, a netbook is perfectly capable of everyday tasks with the added benefits of increased mobility and better battery life (i.e. the new eeepc 1000he can get 7-8 hours realistically). As a developer, a netbook isn't my primary machine, but it's perfect for my mobility needs. I'd expect it would be an equally good mobile device for a network admin or student.

You may not be in that target market, but at least now you know who they are. For many (most?) of us, the extra computing power of traditional laptops goes grossly underutilized, so why buy more than you need and get a less mobile computer in return?

Re:Who wants this?

[chunk08]

I'm currently looking at getting a netbookas a college student. Not because of cost concerns, but simply because I want something to type notes on with a battery life that will work for my 7 consecutive hours of lecture. There are uses for these things, not every computer has to be able to run folding@home, Crysis, and my web server at the same time.

The question is...

[Opinari]

What will the price point be on this device? If it's in the $499 range, it might be worth a look. However, when I can buy a Dell Mini with a 16 GB SSD and 2 GB of memory for less than $350, and install Leopard on it [gizmodo.com] for $85 + the cost of a couple of USB flash drives, why would I want to pay much more than that?

Re:Who wants this?

[Corporate Troll]

An iPhone is cheap? Since when?!?

Re:Who wants this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Your iPhone is cheap until you factor in the monthly phone bill you have for it. Netbooks have approximately the same overhead with none of the cost of continued use (well, okay, you'll maybe replace the battery at some point, but that will take a while), and that makes it a LOT more attractive.

Besides, the niche for netbooks isn't people who already have a smartphone and a full-size laptop. They mostly exist for people who don't have either (or only have, say, a smartphone), and want something that's incredibly portable and can do some of the more important things they would do with a laptop or desktop.

Re:Who wants this?

[Glytch]

Just like how their current compact, low-power laptop [apple.com] costs less than their regular conventional laptop? [apple.com]

Re:I'd Buy One

[silent_artichoke]

WTF is sexy about a computer? I am sick of seeing this term used in every stupid tech review. Attractive? Ok, I guess it attracts my attention. Eye-pleasing? Sure, that works. But does anyone really, seriously get sexually aroused by a stupid Macbook or any kind of technology? Enough already!

And you all know I'm not talking about the pr0n we watch on it, I'm talking about the device itself.

Re:Who wants this?

[Andy Dodd]

I disagree on your last con - If you get an SSD netbook this is the case, but you can store quite a few movies on a 160GB hard drive if you get one of the $300-400 HD versions. (As opposed to the $200-300 SSD ones)

Re:Who wants this?

[joh]

Cause they already have a laptop but it's a pain to carry the thing around for your average meeting or what not. Plus, tons of people get them for college since they are cheap. The couple hundred bucks does make a difference. And they aren't really that underpowered. 2 years ago a mini9 would have been a perfectly good laptop.

The thing that many people seem to forget is that having another computer to care for is a major pain in the ass in the long run. Many people have changed to notebooks exactly because they wanted to be able to use just *one* computer both on the desktop and when away and a netbook reverses that. If you can't use a netbook as your main and only computer you have gained exactly nothing.

I'm getting the impression that while a lot of these things are sold, they're getting not so much use. For most people it's just another gadget. A toy to show off and to use at home now and then, not more.

I've tried lots of netbooks and really was keen on buying one, but then the thought of having to nurse another machine along and to sync apps and data and bookmarks and passwords and updates made me think different...