Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 18th Feb 2009 14:36 UTC
With the economy in decline, many fear that the one company to take the financial blow would be Apple. The company focusses on the higher end of the market (at least in price), and with many people having less and less money to spend, as well as facing insecure financial prospects, people may decide to choose for a cheaper, non-Apple computer. Piper Jaffray, an Apple-friendly analyst firm, has projected that the Cupertino company is about to face a decline in year-over-year Mac sales; for the first time in six years.
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Member since:
2009-02-11
For a lot of people, a netbook (or nettop) is the perfect device because they do not need any more processing power. The Atom is definitely enough for day-to-day tasks that a whole range of consumers only do.
Plus you can't compare netbooks and notebooks in terms of compactness, weight and battery life. Unless spending thousands of €/$ there is nothing like a netbook. And even for notebook at that price, the netbook may be better depending on your needs.
A larger iPod Touch would be a good move for Apple but it won't replace a netbook unless -- you guess it -- there is an hardware keyboard. As far as I know, there is no way to compete with an hardware keyboard when you have some serious typing to do.
So now it depends on the customers. Some people buy a netbook because they want some cheap small laptop to play videos and do basic surf -- which covers indeed a lot of people. In that case a larger iPod Touch could be a killer device.
But other people buy a netbook because they need a laptop they can take with them everywhere and which has the battery life to be able to use them everywhere and in order to do more than basic typing. For these people, the larger iPod Touch can't do the job.
My (totally un-educated) guess for the next years is that more and more people will go after the netbook first and eventually after for the desktop in addition to the netbook.
Because if you're needing more than a netbook, you're better with a desktop than with any laptop in terms of performance, price and customizability.
And when you're on the go, you're better with the netbook because it's so small and light and you're still able to do most of the tasks, without any power outlet.
From what I see, if you need more processing power than an Atom it's much better to spend 1000€ in a desktop plus a netbook than to spend 1000€ in a notebook.