Apple still not down with the "netbook" scene – insists software is more important than hardware

Gary Cutlack Computers, Laptops / Notebooks, Software
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Still oblivious to the fact that over 90% of the western world’s disposable income is being spent on cheap netbooks right now*, Apple has once again underlined its reluctance to join the miniaturisation scene – because smaller computers aren’t necessarily better. Or usable.

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“We think the products there are inferior and will not provide the experience to customers that they’re happy with,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, on the subject of netbooks, while presumably still laughing from watching a Vaio P spend three minutes booting up Vista.

We kind of agree with his point. A cheap laptop’s great and all, but if you can’t type on the bloody keyboard and the Shift key is the size of an ant’s left nut and you’re stuck with a stripped-down OS, using them’s not the greatest user experience in the world – and we all know how much Apple cares about the user experience.

Plus the fact that people seem very happy to spend £1300 on a MacBook Air may also explain Apple’s reluctance to start giving people alternatives in the £229 – £269 bracket.

*Survey conducted on Jan 22 2009 at 10.31am by Finger In The Air Media.

(Via Wired)

Related posts: Apple bins iTunes DRM – for a fee | New-ish 13″ MacBook

Gary Cutlack
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2 comments

  • Well, the macbook air is apple’s answer to the netbook if you want a small computer isn’t it?

    And it’s damn sexy albeit very expensive [but isn’t all apple stuff expensive?].

    And what do people use netbooks for anyway?
    sending emails? browsing the web?
    That’s what an iphone is for isn’t it?
    And you don’t need a huge usb dongle sticking out of the iphone either.

    The only thing I can’t do on my iphone is write word documents…. hmmm, do I really need to? It would be nice.
    I do tend to write little notes on the iphone that I write up on the computer later.
    d
    x

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