Apple has some not so nice things to say about the netbooks on the market today. On the point about keyboard (yesterday's earnings call), I'd have to agree. As for the rest, I'm not so sure. LED screens. The Atom chips aren't bad considering they run Leopard just fine.
But I do understand where Apple is coming from on this. The netbooks feel cheap. The keyboards are small, even for me. And from MSI Wind (MacWind) to HP, Sony, and EEE PC, the plastics are just flimsy and you truly do get what you paid for.
I never bought Apple's argument that if folks want a netbook equivalent from Apple, they should go with the iPhone or iPod Touch. Here, we know that it's merely smoke screen. I don't know if anyone really bought it.
But do buy what they say about Apple having ideas about the netbook market and they're watching it closely. And these ideas have been cooking at Apple for a while now and we should see the end results pretty soon.
The netbooks really aren't meant to be a substitute for a laptop or desktop nor was it meant to duplicate the computing and Internet experiences of a fully-equiped PC. And I think there is where philosophical differences come into play.
If Apple wanted to, they can start shipping out a netbook with OS X installed on there on technologies they consider to be subpar to satisfy a small segment of financial analysts and Web pundits who will never rest until they see an official Apple logo on a netbook. It's simply not in Apple's DNA. What will happen is anyone's guess.
Apple isn't ignoring the netbook segment of the market. When Apple finally release their finely tuned mobile device, I hope it will finally put to rest any more talk about netbooks.
Note: When Apple finally address the netbook issues, look for those who are never satisfied to go back and talk about the iPhone nano and why Apple will never survive without it.