{"id":1088,"date":"2010-10-30T07:00:56","date_gmt":"2010-10-30T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2010-10-30T07:00:56","modified_gmt":"2010-10-30T12:00:56","slug":"apple-goes-all-in-on-netbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2010\/10\/30\/apple-goes-all-in-on-netbooks\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2605 Apple Goes All In on Netbooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Apple Introduces a Netbook<\/p>\n

I’ve been dying to write this for a long time. The truth is, I spent nearly 6 months between January and May of 2009 trying my best to find a netbook that worked for me. I’m comfortable with Windows and Mac. Right now, I’m using a Dell latitude full time with a 27″ iMac at home to have some fun with Windows 7 as my full-time mobile machine. I also have a MacBook Air and an iPad + iPhone 4 for weekend trips. Those brief few months of searching taught me a few things and it wasn’t until the revision C MacBook Air came out that I was convinced the MacBook Air would be a great all-around mobile computer. In 2009, I wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I was convinced that a netbook was in my future. Windows doesn\u2019t bother me and I as feverishly trying to find a netbook that fit my needs when I was away from my desk or traveling. Honestly, I would spec out a slew of netbooks once a week and always be dissapointed. My dream netbook cost somewhere around $800 with a 10\u2033 screen, 1.6Ghz ATOM processor and 2Gbs of ram. These netbooks were all the same with slightly different form factors and all of them came loaded with Windows XP. My thought was that I should just wait for Windows 7 and NVIDIA\u2019s next gen low-power chipsets but the MacBook Air kept calling me.<\/p>\n

MacBook Air could run all of my favorite shareware apps, open all of my iWork documents, sync between my other Mac seamlessly and was thinner and lighter than most netbooks with a much larger screen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What’s fascinating to me that with the arrival of iPad and the 11.6″ MacBook Air, netbooks still haven’t changed. I can’t help but laugh a bit because, in preparation for this article, I went to Dell.com<\/a> to check out their Dell mini and realized that they’re still using 1.6Ghz ATOM processors, 250GB HDD drives and still selling “premium” netbooks that come pre-loaded with Windows xp and 1GB of ram. XP only came out in August of 2001.<\/p>\n

The iPad was Apple’s Netbook, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It wasn’t. The iPad is a tablet. It’s a response to a market that has been flat for over a decade. Bill Gates saw the potential of tablets and showed them off each year at CES to little fanfare. Steve waited until the timing was right and until amazing applications could be built and distributed easily. The maturity of OS X and the App Store model (fueled by iPhone & iOS) coupled with supreme battery technology, unibody construction and the A4 chip made for the perfect\u00a0ingredients\u00a0that launched iPad but I can’t call iPad a netbook despite the fact sales of iPad are replacing and killing sales of netbooks.<\/p>\n

The problem with netbooks is that they were meant as low-cost, low productivity machines to offset people’s shrinking wallets. Now, anyone could buy a PC. Windows still made their licensing money and PC companies were still selling “units” but it’s the Wal*Mart model of extremely low margins coupled with terrible end user experiences. Netbooks were meant to fail as soon as a better device came along.<\/p>\n

iPad was that device but not because it competed with netbooks head on with similar features. Apple shined in price & usability with an OS & app store that we were all familiar with. When Apple did this, the netbook died.<\/p>\n

Clearly, Apple wasn’t done yet.<\/p>\n

Steve Still Hates Netbooks?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think Steve\u00a0philosophically\u00a0hates “netbooks” for the reasons I listed above. It’s not a market he ever wants to be in and the 11.6″ MacBook Air being priced at $999 reflects that. I wanted to share a few quotes from Mr. Jobs in 2008.<\/p>\n

“I think that when people want a product of the class that we make, over and over again people have done the price comparisons and we’re actually quite competitive. So we choose to be in some segments of the market and we choose not to be in certain segments of the market.<\/p>\n

“So the question is, ‘is the downturn going to drive some of our customers to those lower segments of the market place to buy lesser products.<\/p>\n

“I will be surprised if that happens in large numbers. And I actually think that there are still a tremendous number of customers that we don’t have, in the Windows world, or in the other 99% of the phone market that we don’t have, who would like to and can afford to buy Apple products.<\/p>\n

“We’re not tremendously worried. As we look at the netbook category, that’s a nascent category. As best as we can tell, there’s not a lot of them being sold. You know, one of our entrants into that category if you will is the iPhone, for browsing the Internet, and doing email and all the other things that a netbook lets you do. And being connected via the cellular network wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits in your pocket. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again in 2010:<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there room for something in the middle? We’ve wondered for years as well\u201d Jobs said. \u201cIn order to create that category, they have to be far better at doing some key tasks better than the laptop and better than the smartphone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat kind of tasks? Browsing the web. Doing email. Enjoying and sharing pics. Watching videos. Enjoying music. Playing games. Reading ebooks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there’s going to be a third category it has to be better at these tasks \u2013 otherwise it has no reason for being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow some people thought that was a netbook — the problem is that netbooks aren’t better than\u00a0anything<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Steve seems completely focused on netbooks and not on a smaller MacBook Air.<\/p>\n

Enter the 11.6″ MacBook Air<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before today’s announcement, Apple’s mobile lineup started with iPhone then iPad and then a 13″ notebook. Their largest notebook is the 17″ MacBook Pro. The iPad & MacBook 13″ are distant cousins both in size and portability. An 11.6″ MacBook Air isn’t an iPad killer. It won’t\u00a0cannibalize\u00a0iPad sales any more than it will the sales of the $250 Dell mini 10. It’s an ultra-portable, full-featured notebook with a very slow processor and small screen but it rocks the socks off any current netbook and serves an entirely different purpose than Apple’s iPad.<\/p>\n

This is the beauty of the strategy. PC manufacturers making single digits dollars on every netbook sold aren’t afraid because the new MacBook Air starts at $999. Tablet makers selling $499 devices aren’t worried either. Apple has just entered the “premium netbook market” that we all hoped it would 2 years ago and, despite the fact that I think it’s too slow and the battery life is too low, I’m in love with the form factor.<\/p>\n

My 14″ Dell notebook, 13″ MacBook Air and 27″ iMac will now have competition. The iPad will remain my reading and RSS device. The Latitude with an i7 Intel processor will remain my road-warrior machine for week long business trips but I’ll be sticking a tiny MacBook Air in my bag as well because I have found my couch computer. The new MacBook Air is the netbook I was looking for nearly 2 years ago and the outrageous price has been beaten out by a beautiful unibody construction, familiar OS X interface and the perfectly bouncy keyboard that begas to be touched.<\/p>\n

Apple’s netbooks is just an even more portable MacBook Air and I love it.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple Introduces a Netbook I’ve been dying to write this for a long time. 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Apple has managed to create a notebook that can go anywhere, do anything and satisfy 90% of my needs in such a small package that it makes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"My Thoughts","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-thoughts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3263,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/10\/25\/bureaucracy-killed-the-netbook\/","url_meta":{"origin":1088,"position":1},"title":"\u2605 Bureaucracy Killed The Netbook","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"BGR: Media tablet [iPad] shipments surpassed netbook shipments this quarter, reaching 13.6 million units, compared to just 7.3 million netbooks. Netbooks had previously led the way with 8.4 million shipments in 1Q11, compared to just 6.4 million media tablets. Prior to the iPad, I spent a lot of time talking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":475,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2009\/08\/29\/one-week-with-the-macbook-air-a-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":1088,"position":2},"title":"\u2605 One Week with The MacBook Air [A REVIEW]","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"August 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Air in January of 2008. I was in the office and it was special because this would become his last Macworld Keynote Address. He announced a few new iPhone features and software offerings but the main attraction was the thinnest and lightest notebook ever released\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"My Thoughts","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-thoughts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":823,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2010\/03\/08\/my-awesome-macbook-air-now-for-sale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1088,"position":3},"title":"\u2605 My Awesome MacBook Air…now for sale","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"March 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the eBay link to my MacBook Air sale. In September of 2009, I wrote a review of the latest Apple MacBook Air after using it for over a month. In that review I said: Apple\u2019s MacBook Air is the best $1900 Netbook I\u2019ve ever owned. 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