Apple looking pretty good at Amazon

Anyone else notice how the Mac mini appears twice in the top 25? Clearly people are still buying in spite of the media reports of it being dead, unpopular, unsuccessful, etc. Looking forward to the new Mac mini on Jan 6th!

Here's the problem with a Mac netbook.

The iTouch with it's small screen costs from $299 (8 gb) to $399 (32 gb) and the lowest end MacBook costs $999 for the previous generation and $1299 for the lowest cost current generation. Exactly what could you build for between that which wouldn't cause people to buy it and not a MacBook?

I'd love to have an iTouch/iPhone with more RAM and a screen that is 250% larger where you still don't have a keyboard. I mean EXACTLY like an iTouch/iPhone but 250% larger. How much would they have to charge for it though? $799???

Truth is I would buy one of those but keep in mind a few things. How much RAM do you think it would have? It would have to be less than the AIR has or people would buy it instead. So I'm thinking not more than 64gbs. But even then, if you weren't typing all day and were just surfing and doing things you would do on an iTouch/iPhone then I still think they would have quite a few people buy this new device over the AIR and Apple would lose about $1,000 in profit, which is more than this $799 device would cost in total.

With that big of a screen and the virtual keyboard, I could see myself getting used to typing on that with two hands. It would be big enough for that. Barely but big enough. So you wouldn't need a separate keyboard for it. See what I'm saying? People would buy that instead of the MacBook or AIR and Apple would lose lots of profits.

And that's with only 64 gb of RAM with no way to upgrade it. Meaning you would NOT be able to plug in an external hard drive or anything you can't plug into a iTouch/iPhone. It would still cannibalize the MacBook and AIR. So you will never see it even though I would love to see one.

So what do you have to price something like this at? It would have to be at least $1099 which would mean buying this or spending just $200 more to buy a full latest generation MacBook, which I would then opt for because it has lots more storage and you can plug stuff into it. It would still be EXTREMELY irritating that it doesn't have FireWire on the MacBook but I couldn't see myself buying this super iTouch/iPhone when the MacBook is "just a little more".

So ... what do you build and with what specs without stopping people from buying the MacBook or AIR. I don't see a product that Apple could build that wouldn't hurt their profits.

Note: I was ready to buy a new MacBook until I found out it didn't have a FireWire port on it making it so I can't plugin my video camera to it. And I can't afford a new MacBook AND a new video camera to start with. Not to mention that daisy chaining multiple USB hard drives kills performance compared to FireWire. Why multiple hard drives? One TimeMachine drive, one drive for home/family videos (since they won't fit on the MacBook hard drive which is too small to start with but can't be made bigger because of the MacBook Pros ...) and I could go on from there.

"Are you listening, Apple? Netbooks are catching on. "
I hope they are! top four notebook computers were netbooks, two Apples in to top 10 rest were netbooks.

The market is shifting, big time, I work in education and netbooks are big news. I am a lifelong Apple user/fanboy and l find myself recommending Lenovo S10 netbooks, Apple has no product that comes near in cost/portability terms.

I was amused by Andrews comment, "BMW? Hyundais are catching on." my thought would be "GM?, compact cars are catching on". We all know what happens to car companies who ignore market trends.

Anyway I find myself increasingly using a netbook (running Mac OS of course) instead of my Macbook, its well built, bright LED lit screen, 160gb hd, 2mb ram, N wifi, memory card slot, real external monitor port, 3 USB ports, web camera and as 4/5 hour battery life, it cost a fraction of a Macbook Air.

Like all fanboys I would prefer to be using (and recommending) a real Apple, lets hope new week brings a netbook announcement.

"Are you listening, Apple? Netbooks are catching on. "

That's like saying "Are you listening, BMW? Hyundais are catching on." Apple's target customers are different than ASUS and Acer just as BMW's target market is different than Hyundai. Both their products do similar things at a high level, but one is much, much nicer.

Great, iPod Touch is more and more popular in the electronics devices.

If Mac users need convert DVD movie, or video clips and HD video from cameras to iPod Touch, you can use the Total Media Converter for Mac.
http://www.aimersoft-mac.com/total-media-converter-mac.html

Hope it helps every guys. Merry Christmas.

In my opinion Apple is playing it smart to sit on the side lines with netbooks for now. There's not much evidence to suggest netbooks are replacing traditional desktop/laptops -- they are supplementing them as second (third, fourth?) computers. I think Apple is very happy if you buy a 24" iMac for home and a $300 no-margin netbook for the road. The only market where they might be replacing desktops/laptops is with extremely price sensitive customers who were never Apple buyers anyway. No loss there either.

It terms of desktop vs. laptop sales I think there's a growing trend of "stay at home" laptops replacing desktops and being supplemented with netbooks or smart phones for mobile use outside the home. If that trend continues I think the iPhone fills the gap nicely. There's no real need for an Apple netbook yet. The technology just isn't there to produce a cheap innovative netbook and there's no incentive for Apple to fight in a market with razor thin margins when they already offer a higher margin product (iPhone) that serves basically the same purpose.

Another point of contention: Amazon didn't release any profit information (that I'm aware of) in today's press release. It's great that they're selling lots of stuff, but if they aren't getting good margin, how can you say things are looking up? I'd be interested in finding out the numbers before calling it a success.

PS has mel ever written a good article, if so pls reply with a link

:D

hell, what kind of amazon logo you have used in this article?

This netbook thing keeps coming up, and I think it misses the point. Apple already has a series of small portables in the sub-$500 price range that allow for Internet browsing and e-mail. Folks can (and undoubtedly will) grouse about the virtual keyboard, but most of what people seem to be wanting netbooks for is already covered by the iPhone and iPod Touch.