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awesome lightweight notebook. Im a software developer & its my only computer. 8 hour battery life, lighter than the air, 11" screen ultraportable, great keyboard, LCD backlit screen (years before apple), dvd writer, dual core - its great.
dont know which you had - but either you're wrong or it was a different model.
You shouldn't *need* a 22 inch screen to make software.
Welcome to the real world. We shouldn't *need* to do quite a lot, but reality has its way and so we must.
so... it depends.
Sure a netbook would be very minimal, but it would allow you to do your work whilst an iPhone would be unusable for that. I'll buy one, one of these days...
The Acer Aspire One that I use as a server running Windows XP runs solidly. The only reboots have been in the middle of the night on "Patch Tuesday". It is not a piece of junk.
The only problem at the moment is the ridiculous software set-ups they ship with. The first thing I had to do when I got my 901 was strip out the crappy OS. It's only a matter of manufacturers figuring out how to configure their machines.
Your world is quite narrow, Keoz!
Anyway if he thinks he's unable to code without a truck full of displays, quad-core computers, but with minimal environment, he'll be in trouble in his future developer's life...
Sure I prefer my dual-head workstation in my office, but I'd be happy to have a netbook always ready in my suitecase not to have to think about taking my bulky notebook's bag with me each time I have to go debugging by customers.
It's simple: The AIR is simply too expensive for most people.
Products that are in demand and suck don't last long.
Netbooks are now in demand since more than one year. Thus probably they don't suck.
Maybe Product Management at Apple sucks as they made a big mistake?
Apple doesn’t know how to make good printers, doesn’t know how to make good document management systems, doesn’t know how to make many products other companies make successfully.
It's very easy to say "we don't make netbooks because they suck", that's just flippant and shows a disregard for anything not branded Apple, rather childish really.
I think you will find that netbooks are just one of those products that Apple would struggle with. Netbooks are all about form over function, often bought by companies with strict budgets and buying guidelines so it’s not as easy to sell the same product as everyone else for more money on the grounds that it looks prettier.
Apple needs to either come up with something different, find a new niche it can still charge top money for a novelty product for or continue to focus on non professional markets. It’s a bit like the iPhone, a very pretty phone which I love, great for home use but it’s no Blackberry for commercial use.
This guy is talking out of his a*se! Take the Samsung NC10, a quality piece of kit that is selling like hotcakes. People buy and use netbooks because they mainly want access to the web and email. For this you do not need some ridiculous overbearing o/s like Vista. Linux or XP do the job just fine. For speculation sake if Apple made a netbook, what would they choose to run on it? Certainly not XP, not linux, that leaves them with....?
Let's face it, if it wasn't for the iPod & iPhone, Apple would be in deep sh*t right now, so slagging off small and portable devices is very contradictory. Anyway who cares if they don't want to make them, as somebody else suggested they would be way over priced.
No Wonder, after 25 years, we see every time a reborned MAC, and no wonder, it is allways the best OS and the Best Company. Instead, it is te biggest shit OS. And no wonder that after 25 fivce years, it has only 5% of share.
Your comments are like from a poorly made (Visual Studio+Visual Basic?) AI. So previsible, with so limited knowledge base...
Netbooks are designed for two things. Firstly, for casual web browsing. Secondly and most importantly, for running remote desktop connections such as RDC/VPN and Citrix, where they just act as a remote screen and keyboard. I can sit in an airport departure lounge and run Visual Studio on my home computer in one window and run database extracts on work machine in another.
I haven't even installed any programs on my netbook, if I want to use Word I just use it to hop onto a box with Word.
Bloody brilliant idea.
LoL, who gives a f**k about Apple. All these Mac users just keep braging about what they bought and how much they paid for it (like it matters). Do you people need ego boost or something? I just don't get it... if you like using Macs just USE them, don't go around and brag to everyone... you are being such a /b/.
About this article... well :D I see it this way... market is way to big for Apple or any other company to dominate alone. If they don't make netbooks someone else will. Consumers have demands and whoever satisfies those demands earns money. I don't think, except for those iMustBragAboutMyMac type of people, many care if it's a Mac or Asus or any other. If it is doing it's job and doesn't cost an arm and a leg... well who gives a damn.
Furthermore, netbooks do have very small screens. If a notebook has a 13" screen, it's not a netbook. One can even say that netbooks have junky hardware compared to full-featured notebooks; for example, an Atom-processor isn't as fast as a Core 2 Duo processor.
'Terrible software' is subjective of course, but it's clear that most netbooks don't run Vista or OS X Leopard well. Netbooks also don't come with the full suite of high-quality lifestyle and productivity software that Apple ships with their notebooks.
I fire up my Blackberry and enjoy the lifestyle software on there, sure it doesn't look as polished as the high quality software that's available for Windows but I don't expect it to be.
I can quickly check email, Facebook, pick up Skype calls, search Google or use the Yahoo suite. It's very productive and saves me carrying a laptop around.
I mean come on, it's like saying all TV's are cr*p because they just don't give the cinema experience. That's true but I don't need to be in the cinema to catch up on the news :/
"I just use it for what I bought it for."
Most of the individuals commenting in here - like "Keoz" - seem to think that their idea of "good" is the only one.
It's a breath of fresh air to see someone who understands the concept of task-oriented tangibles; buy the right tool for the right job. It's why I develop in both PHP and ASP, both C# and Java, and why I run both Linux and Windows. Sometimes, the right tool for one job isn't the right tool for another job.
Netbooks have their place - as the market has already stated, quite clearly. Asus is making a sufficient profit to warrant releasing additional models within that space. The netbook may at some point take over for the Notebook, just as the notebook may at some point take over for the desktop... or.. it may not. Either way.. who cares? Buy the tool you need to get the job done.
Cheers to you, Darren. Thanks for being a voice of reason in a crowd all spewing bullshit. ;)
Enjoy the ipod, iphone sales while you can, eventually Apple will need to make something new and it wont move in this economy at the $2k + price tag.
Apple typically does pretty well with education market as well, and I see that slipping away from them even further as more and more people embrace the cloud and netbook computing.
I hope more and more people create their own hackintoshes, and i think android has a good chance to make for a decent netbook OS. Netbooks have a place in the consumer mind set, most are the second laptop, or the travel laptop, or the one i like to use for basic stuff and the web which hello is in everything these days.
Apple's loss and they will feel it.
So this doesn't mean they won't come up with a competing product, in fact they may well blow the doors off the current fledgling market with a compelling user interface and usability...they are just holding their fire.
As to a skinny, color Newton, I fail to understand where you would keep such a device, no matter how sexy. In giant pant pockets? Overcoat pockets? Briefcase? What happens when it rings?
What Apple are saying is you can't produce a machine for $300 without it being cheaply made and poorly spec'd. This is not the business model for any of Apple's other products. So why should they compromise now? Starbucks could sell you a coffee for $0.50 but it would taste like crap - you know it, they know it. So why expect them to?
You believe that people reading emails and web-browsing are still in the "stone age", then both you and I and everybody else who has entered in a comment must be cave-men, since we're all currently web-browsing. Whether we're using $4,000 Mac Book/laptop or $300 netbook, we're still all browsing.
From all the comments that you've entered, it appears you're the type of person who will buy a Ferrari for inner-city driving. WHAT A JOKE!!!! As Daryl stated, buy the right tool for the right job. An over-powered 22" laptop may not suit a business man that is constantly travelling (interstate or overseas) and only requires to perform simple tasks such as emailing, web-browsing, contact management, document proposal writing, etc.
Peter Webb is be a good example. He bought the right tool for his purpose. He uses the netbook mainly as a "workstation" (for lack of a better work) to remote into dedicated machines to perform tasks. You replied to his comment stating "...where do you do that you need a good broadband connection..." Have you heard of wireless internet or are you still in the "stone age"?
Friends of mine are currently back-packing overseas and they managed to purchase a netbook for about $250. It's PERFECT for them. All they use it for is emailing, web-browsing, Facebook and to Skype to their friends and family back home (in Australia). If they loose the netbook, it wouldn't set them back as much as if they lost a $2,500 Laptop. Also, with the amount and size of bags they have, it is much easier for them to pack a 11" netbook rather than a 21" Laptop. You keep on talking about "the real world". Well, if you spend time with real people rather than computers all day then you'd realise people such as Peter Webb, Darren, Daryl, Andrew and others commenting here ARE real people with REAL views.
Personally I'm not a huge fan of netbooks, but I agree with Peter Webb, Darren and Daryl. Buy the right tool for the right purpose whether that is for document writing, remote access, emailing, web-browsing, etc. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're "...deacelerating the hardware technology..." you're simply not paying for excessive hardware that you wouldn't use.
For example, would you use a helicopter just to go 2 minutes down the street to shop for groceries? You would probably say yes... the technology is newer, the hardware is more durable and it's 10 times as fast. Mate, that's a bit of a joke isn't it?!?
Andrew has a very good point. It seems that Apple's business model is to ensure high-end technology at a price, hence them having a hard time trying to fathom the concept of selling a netbook style of device for $300. Perhaps in the near future they may introduce a device that is under $1000 to compete in this unique market space.
Time will tell.
Thanks.
Remember that Java was first thought to be only for applets, but came into its own with servlets. I see netbooks moving the same way: from client to server.
Apple should do a survey of what ordinary people are doing with netbooks. Apple are missing a huge opportunity here. End of story. iPHones and iPods may be doing well; but Macbooks are not doing well relative to ALL the PC laptops and netbooks combined.
Also, if new macbook's are too expencive, you can always get a powerbook g3, ibook g3 or god forbid a clamshell ibook (the blue/orange ones) off ebay for like 60£ ish
I have to disagree with Tim's comments: "“When I look at netbooks, I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens." Except for the hardware and software is he not describing the iPhone? People watch videos on their iPhone so why not a 10" screen? The hardware and software of an Apple Net-Book should not be an issue since it would be designed by Apple and loaded with Apple software.
I see nothing wrong with adding a second MacBook Air to the line up with a decreased screen size. There is still room to decrease the screen size around the MacBook Air keyboard.
But maybe Apple has something else up their sleeves like a MacBook Touch. And while you're at it, why not build all that iPhone functionality right in to it making it the first on the go Cellular Laptop bringing the world of mobile communications and computing together.
I agree with that.