Bobbing for Apple Netbooks

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Comments Posted on Jul 22, 2009 Posted by Yellow Tiger

The speculation surrounding Apple’s entry into the low-cost notebook market shows no signs of abating with the latest rumors reporting that Apple will release a netbook of some sort in October. Just as hazy as whether there’ll be an Apple netbook or not, is the question of what it will look like. The pic above shows what sort of device one Shanzai manufacturer is expecting – an 8.9” ARM-based, clam-shell design.

The build quality looks pretty good and the design itself quite stylish, coming in the traditional Apple white and tapering to a very thin 5mm at the front end. The key feature is of course the ARM processor, which should give a battery life of 7-8 hrs with a standard 3 cell unit. And at only 0.75kg, it’s certainly light enough to carry around with you.

Apple_ARM3

Obviously a real Apple device isn’t going to feature the Linux or WinCE OS this device comes with, but at the same time an Apple netbook isn’t going to have a price tag of USD200 either.

I still tend to think any Apple netbook-type device is going to be of the tablet variety, rather than the more traditional clam-shell notebook style. If the latest rumors are to be believed Apple will produce touch screen devices about 9.7 inches in diagonal length that will cost around USD800 and might look a little like the pic below.

Apple_touchbook

Concept art for an Apple touch-screen Netbook.
(Credit: Gizmodo)

Western Opportunity Analysis:

As with a lot of the Shanzai fake brand devices, this is well built and very functional, but needs to lose the Apple logo for it to find a market in the West. A big plus for this netbook is that it uses an ARM processor (no word on which model of ARM or clock speed) and could ride the wave of media attention currently surrounding these types of products.