Apple thinks netbooks are "junky"

"cramped keyboards, junky hardware, very small screens, bad software"

Sounds very apple like....well okay, their desktop keyboards are average, but 3 out of 4 isn't bad.

Also how can Tim Cook compare viewing webpages on a 7"-10" 1024 pixel horizonal resolution screen with surfing on a 3" Ithingy screen?

Now... okay...Why is a major independent hardware retailer bashing the single biggest booming market in a seriously slowed down economy. Would it not be more wiser to just take a nice fresh cup of shut the f*ck up ?

The netbook rage is a combination of several factors that are bigger then any of the players in the market combined; as even la Intelas margins are humbled by the 'sudden' succes of the Atom.

Then again ? Why would Apple bitch towards the market about netbook only if it would be perceived as a threat to them ? They just need to keep their mouths shut about netbook and continue to do what their good at: making a difference in a market of beige boxes.

look at all this arrogance oozing from this sleaze. bashing something they have nothing to compete with. of course apple they not going to make netbook as they will not be able to get their usual 500$ margin per device.
it seems that this piece of garbage is to detter those in apple heard beginning to look at non apple devices "you shall not even think of getting one, they are bad customer experience,'

yes netbook does have small screen and small hence cramped keyboard, but guess what - thats the point! small size for better mobility.

gosh, this arrogance makes me sick. and then the fanboys ask "why oh why you hate the great apple so much?" thats exactly why! horribly arogant, POS company

They fail to get it, Netbooks are not about an all singing and dancing multimedia experience all served up in a nice white shiny Apply device. They are about providing a device that will allow you to surf, email, watch a movie on the move (without losing you're eyesight or you're credit rating), prepare relatively simple documents and that's about it. They do what they say on the box. Oh wait Apple boxes are always bare...

Tell that to the many people happily using OSX on a netbook. Why aren't they buying a MacBook Air.

"When I'm looking at what's sold in the netbook market, I see cramped keyboards, junky hardware, very small screens, bad software," said Cook during Apple's financial analyst call.

I call the above a Mac Book....

"for those who want a small computer that does browsing [and] email, they might want an Iphone or Ipod Touch".

ROFL... if Iphone is a small computer.. OMG... it can't even send and recieve MMS

Unless of course "we find a way to deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution," said Cook, in which case "we'll do that".

Yeah.. they can.. 6 gigs of RAM for 1000$...

I find it funny that Tim would call netbooks junk when my HP Mini and MSI Wind's screen has better color, contrast and viewing angles then a Macbook.

Also haven't Tim Cook seen how terrible the white Macbooks where? Cracking case, yellowing chassis, overheating, exploding batteries, logic board failures etc. I have yet to see any netbook out there exhibiting the flaws of the Macbook.

I'm okay that Apple is so sortsighted about netbooks. The longer I use my netbook the more uses I find for it and the more valuable it is to me. Netbooks are not as underpowered as some people think they are. My netbook came through with flying colors the day I used it to help me recover the desktop crash my main computer suffered.

When someone finally gets around to putting the Ion platform in a netbook that will probably sell even better than the original.

Didn't Apple also dump all over the idea of it selling a Smartphone? Then they suddenly released the iPhone and sold a bunch of them? Could be a similar tactic. Pooh all over the netbook idea then release one that does less than most other netbooks but looks cool, does a few things right, and has the cool fruit flavored logo? First edition will be expensive compared to other netbooks but version 2 (a year later) will cost less than the other netbooks....

This is an Apple-bashing flame-bait site, so reason and moderation aren't treasured qualities around here. Nonetheless, I would like to point out a couple of things.

First, since when is an honest answer to an honest question arrogance? Nobody from Apple volunteered their opinion on Wednesday or any other day about netbooks. They were RESPONDING TO A QUESTION. Had the question not been asked, they probably wouldn't have said anything.

And they were HONESTLY EXPRESSING THEIR FEELINGS. Whether or not netbooks are actually junky, Apple deserves credit for expressing their opinion exactly as it is. Dishonesty, obfuscation, lack of transparency, and chasing every little trend - read the financial news see where these characteristics took banks and financial firms. At least Apple chooses, WHEN ASKED, to tell us what's really on their minds.

And my point is not lost just because Apple will enter the netbook market soon (which, I think, they will). Because they will enter the market the same way as their previous entries into markets for which they previously expressed didain - with a new vision as to what kind of product can serve the market (e.g., iPhone), at a price point that puts the product on the fringes of what that particular market will support (e.g., mac mini).

Second, if indeed Apple wishes to sniff haughtily at the Netbook market, isn't that bad for Apple, and therefore good for all those who would love to see the "fruity toymaker" go down in flames? Maybe this is the beginning of the end for the hugely popular, swimming-in-cash, dominant-in-several-markets, insanely profitable cultural icon. If so, try a little reverse psychology. Support Apple in its decision-making regarding markets like these, if such decision-making will eventually cause this trend-setting, money-printing towering giant to self-destruct. And good luck with that, while you're at it.

Wasn't Sony saying the same thing before releasing their not-a-netbook?

The bottom line is Apple can not over charge people in this market, so this smug temple worker calls all netbooks junk.

I'm sure if Apple released a Mac netbook it would cost around $600.00 just because it is a Mac.

NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH the economy is bad and people will not spend thousands for a Mac just to use OSX when they can get the same hardware for far less. Apple should open OSX to general hardware and enjoy the profits from that market.

.... HP mini sucks and so every other netbook... We, apple, will get you a product that will not be called a netbook, will not have a 10" screen and will not be crippled...

i.e., look for macbook air 2 on 12" screen with better colors and sleekier design..

Glad to see the short sighted thicko losers still hang around here. Enjoy your pos netbooks cos they're about to be orphaned when all those makers go belly-up producing a no-profit empty box of tricks that cannibalises their more profitable lines. Give it 6 months to see how many of these makers are still standing and then you can tell Apple how to run a multi-billion company.
W*nkers one and all, who think the Inquirer is a class act ROTFLOL

I'd bet in something like an 10" Ipod touch, a small tablet PC with atom and Nvidia ION platform and 3G acess, as Apple seems pretty cozy with the green folks.
That wouldn't be bad, if it didn't come with a US$500+ price tag (very unlikely).

Apple isn't stupid. They are making money just fine, and they like the control they have over their products and software. They are about an experience, plain and simple. From the moment you walk into the store, till you've booted up your product for the 1000th time.

Apple will eventually make one, and it will be more expensive but have that Apple design panache. It won't be without its faults, but it will be a good device. Just like the rest of their product line.

Me.. I'll take a $400 netbook and throw XP on it ... thanks..

"junky" is merely Apple's spin on "cheap"

Surely Apple products will never be cheap.

Did he just say that Linux is bad software? I agree with a guy from Apple? WOW, amazing, that's never happened before. Flame war begin! lol

Had my keyboard replaced 3 times in the passed year on my macbook. It's just starting to crack again.

You know I thought there was credibility in OSX on netbooks, it would have looked snazzy on a korg keyboard... on a netbook!

Well, I guess there is allot we don't want. Cyber wars and about computers envisioned to look all the same like storm troupers? I thought the big mac attack was about burgers! Sith lord Steave the only one that thinks he is entitled to individuality?

For all of us users not so personal computers after all! But for the one, tailoring everybody's personality around his ghastly whims.

Some netbooks are manufactured in white, go figure!

... they are determined to hack off and alienate everyone in the world. They've done it to their customers (exploding stuff, charging for functional software upgrades, etc etc), the developer community (Newton, dubious iStore criteria) journalists and now... people who haven't bought Apple gear but might have done.

Bought a netbook? Apparently you're a prat for putting up with that 1024*600 display which a decade ago would have been perfectly respectable for a desktop machine.

Netbooks sell because they rule. If you already own a "proper" computer then something small enough to stick in your rucksack / manbag / whatever as a satellite computer is a VERY attractive proposition. If it's cheap enough that you won't be traumatised to heck when it gets left in a pub / dropped in a river / stolen, then that's actually a huge plus. Remember when portable CD players came out in early nineties and nobody bought them because they cost 200 pounds and were really delicate and had no anti-skip protection? People stuck with their £30 tape walkmans.

Apple haven't publically admitted this yet. They are very canny and I think we will shortly see something new from them. Will it be a small x86 clamshell keyboarded machine running standard OSX with relatively little DRM? I think that's too obvious. Bung in a swivelling touchscreen and some special software to sunc with your main Mac and engineer it for passive cooling. Retail price of 400-600 pounds (600-900 dollars) for a slick mini OSX notebook and you've entered the Apple region of the price/benefits diminishing returns curve.
If it's closer to the £400 point and not locked down then I'd definitely be interested. Otherwise bugger off.

You can always count on the Inquirer to produce mountains of flamebait.

First things first - Are Macs more expensive than PCs? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. As has been stated for over the past year, "When you compare similar computers with similar set ups, made my major manufacturers, the prices are (more times than not) very similar." [Don't believe me. See for yourself - http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Macintosh+OS&articleId=9023959&taxonomyId=123&pageNumber=1

Second - Why would Apple, who earns approximately 33% profit across their product line, want to produce and sell a product that makes them less than 5% profit?

Third - Is anyone who reads the Inquirer even familiar with the concept of 'branding'? [That's a rhetorical question for the Inquirer group.]

Fourth - Will Apple get into the ultra-small laptop market (netbooks)? Perhaps. They may produce an expanded iPod Touch product (unlikely). They may produce a smaller version of the MacBook Air (a possibility, but I wouldn't hold my breath.) If, or when, they do produce an ultra-small laptop I can guarantee that it will be a class shattering product.

I thought that the Chief Operating Officer was the person who ensured that all of the printers have enough paper and all of the desks have chairs.

Incase you forgotten the last time Apple opened up Mac OS to other hardware they almost went bankrupt and lost a lot of mind share as the Mac clones though cheeper where buggy and crashed due to poor quality control.

Just because they don't call it one doesn't change the fact. Compare the specs to other netbooks. No CD drive, low power, cramped keyboard, etc.

Apple can't release a netbook because it's against their marketing strategy. They want to (apear to) lead the industry not follow laggardly, even if they're just tricking the consumer into thinking that thier product is innovative when actually similar products have been out for years (eg mp3 players).

If someone gave me an apple computer I'd paint it beige and put windows on it.

this loser company has a junk mini mac
complate garbage i had one i know, its slow
and all it did was crash and i phone is junk too how do you watch video on it 3 inch screen

Jeri,

The year is 2009.

Apple would have made a mint "if" OSX was released when the Vista turd arrived.

Sigh, the old Apple tried that and failed temple cue card slogan. That was when PC/Macs cost a mint and as far as quality is concerned Apple's has really slipped in the past few years.

Sounds like he is talking about Apple products. Now look at all the cool aid drinking Mac fanatics come out spewing garbage! :D

Apple would have made a mint if it released OSX when Vista came out?

What drugs is this cool aid drinker on?
Many people pirated Tiger and had it running on there PC's when it came out.
So answer this question, why are all the pirates running Windows on there PC's and not booting into 1337 OS X?
Answer there are NO DECENT SOFTWARE packages or GAMES on it.. Ooh but we have Garageband! iTrash, iLife, iTunes! you say? ROTFLMAO.

Apples problem is they are so far up there own ass that the only people whom like them, are people whom enjoy receiving it up there's as well. ;)
Gawd just described the majority of Mac owners *sigh*..

The little Netbooks are rightly popular, the only concerns I would have is how long they will be available with XP before we are forced to use Vista or Window 7, but there's always Linux.

So.....what is Apple's plan? My take is either they know they can't make a competing product so they're trashing the Netbooks to keep the faithful in line.

Or they're planning on a Un-Netbook Netbook, a rebranding image akin to how the iPod was the "answer" to the MP3 player. I think a 10 inch gizmo (how does MacLite sound?) being announced as the next best thing since sliced bread......which will also be more expensive than any other Netbook.

The Apple faithful will chatter how much more productive they are with it while the PC Netbook users chuckle, shrug their shoulders, and move on.

yeah...just like how the VAIO P is "not" a netbook and "completely" different so that it's $999... Apple is more of the same.

"...they were HONESTLY EXPRESSING THEIR FEELINGS..."

Apple is a corporation. A corporation's feelings are at most Cylon's-like.

And we've seen Apple's spokesmen (Jobs, oftentimes) lie through their teeth all too often regarding product lines of others while they are figuring out who to crush them.

The thing is, netbooks caught everyone off-guard: Intel processors-wise, Microsoft OS-wise, Sony and others sub-subnotebook pricing-wise, and Apple cute impulse buy thing-wise (let's not talk about that PLUS hackintoshing it).

Netbooks were born of trying to get the Microsoft tax off the shoulders of inexpensive hardware.By designing a fun superportable form factor and hardware that would cost low enough for consumers to give it a try despite their fear of a Linux-based solution, ASUS tested the waters and... voilá. People not only didn't feared it but actually loved the form factor and pricing, even didn't mind a bit of Ms Tax if needed.

So Intel had to address that with the Atoms, Microsoft had to officially resucitate XP and adapt Win7 development, and Apple had to compensate by... well... spilling bile?

They have two options: do a Mac Book Mini, or do an iPod Touch Pro. Both ideas are very good, but sort of mutually exclusive. My guess is they'll do a bigger form-factor iPod Touch: they can apply the same App Store politics and make zillions of dollars. They'll leave the pure netbook thing to hackintoshers, and perhaps see if they can make the Mac Book Air a bit more competitive when their hardware providers produce better and cheaper parts.

Crikey, I don't think I've ever seen so many toys being thrown out of so many prams!

To me, it is blindingly obvious what's going on.

They're developing something but it's not ready yet and until it is they won't want the surprise ruined. It's the way they've operated for years.

Considering the MacBook [Pro], it's pretty clear what an Apple netbook would look like. Core 2 Solo (like the MSI X-Slim 340), just wide enough to fit a 100% size keyboard (not 80% or 93%...), correspondingly sized 1280x768 screen, 1" thick, li-po battery w/ 4-5 hour charge. Charge $800 and sell on the basis of being the cheapest Apple laptop ever. It'd be tricky to get the price that low and not use an Atom but given Apple's cozy relationship with Intel I bet it'd be possible.

It'd be a nice machine but for now I'm perfectly happy with my $300 Wind running OS X.

Good points znosko and Dilbertdog!

Yeah, I've looked at a slew of "netbooks" out of curiosity. There are some cool features and interesting design features, but for the most part, junk they are!

In the me-too world of near-zero-profit PC assemblers and OS pirates, Apple looks around, takes stock of what's already out there, THEN blows everyone else out of the water by redefining what are considered "standards".

Apple has ALWAYS done this. Remember the iMac and "loss" of the floppy drive? But what happened? It jump started the legitimatization and rapid standardization of USB. Then came wi-fi. Then we had the iPod, iPhone and iPod touch phenomena!

Remember also, that iPhone/touch OS 3.0 will support external input devices via Bluetooth (at least).

I'd guess that whatever Apple releases to 'answer' the netbook fad will be mind blowing.

BTW, Mac users have absolutely NO interest in running ANY form of Windows unless it's absolutely necessary and preferably through virtualization.

...that they wouldn't put the mac brand on a netbook device.

With Mac being the brand for Apple that symbolises expensive, premium products, it makes sense they wouldn't use it for a low level, price sensitive market such as the netbooks.

I still say Apple will release a netbook-like device with a new unknown Apple brand for the low end consumer market.

Trust me on this one.

"... Remember the iMac and "loss" of the floppy drive? But what happened? It jump started the legitimatization and rapid standardization of USB. Then came wi-fi. ..."

Err, no. Apple didn't give us either. USB adaption reached critical mass before Apple's renaissance (though they were ahead of the curve when they stuck a port on the mac keyboards). Wifi became popular because those cheap self-contained routers/switches/access points are self-evidently good technology and people who saw them tended to want one. Apple did help standardise the firewire interface, which few people people care about any more (technical merits notwithstanding).

Apple have done, and will probably continue to do, great designs. But let's not credit them with stuff they had nothing to do with, eh?

Mac owners with no interest in installing windows?

How come all the folks I've known that have bought a Mac of some description over the past 18 months. That the first thing they do with it after switching it on is to install...Windows!

They spend most of their time using it in Windows. The term more money than sense comes to mind.

Most folks buying Apple today, dont have a clue regarding the technology, they just want to buy one of those nice looking expensive machines, 'oh and run windows so we can use our old software please'.

Well that and the fact that if you go into say a branch of John Lewis and overhear a couple in their late 50's walk in and say "we'd like to buy a PC!" the store guys eyes light up and he pushes them straight to the expensive Macs using some of the most horrendous BS you'll ever hear.

More money in his pocket, why the hell not. Me? I'd feel dirty doing that.

Not true. I had a mac clone from Power Computing and never had a problem, stopped using Mac OS when the clones were killed.

Netbooks are hardly junk. I own three netbooks: A MSI Wind, an eee PC 1000 and now an HP 2140. All of them have been stellar performers and very reliable. All of them have been subjected to daily abuse, bumps and even being dropped on the floor and up to this day they are all working like a charm.

I think some people need to get over the commercialist psychological tricks and marketing dribble that tries to claim that just because something is cheap its no good. Apple may become rich because of their great Branding techniques but consumers who buy Apple are poorer because of this.

As some of you have already intelligently guessed, this is company-speak for "We will soon be introducing a netbook-like product, but we feel it will be a lot better than current netbooks, mainly because it has innovative hardware and/or software to try and overcome the limitations inherent to the form factor."

Please refer to the Sony P and "Sony has no plans to develop a netbook."

Yeh right, that guy should be fired for mouthing off with stupid comments like that. As you've all said Netbooks are a huge thing, I'd go as far to say a market changing thing much like the iPod.
Just plain stupidity on Apples part. If they don't want to make affordable PCs thats their loss.
I certainly won't be buying a new Mac ever again. May consider a hackintosh but that's as close as its going to get.

Apple made their first netbook, way back in 1992. It was the first cut price lightweight notebook they made and it was called the PowerBook 90/100, then it was followed by the Powerbook Duo series. then they released a full featured subnotebook made by IBM in Japan, the Powerbook 2400, then they released the cut price iBook chiclets. What's Apple doing pooh-poohing cut price laptops?

Mr. Cook sounds like the grapes are hanging a little too high for him. Well, the market has decided that it likes "cramped keyboards, narrow screens and bad software" at a bargain price.

You think Acer and MSI are little tiny companies that will go under in the next 6 months? I doubt it friend.

Apple has shown that they truly do not understand the current market for computers.

Great, as long as it allows full blown presentations from NATIVE Keynote and PowerPoint presentations.