Netbook

Some people are advancing reasons why there will be a netbook released at MacWorld and others (the denser ones among us) are saying that there is no way a netbook is coming. Yeah, whatever, keep it amongst yourselves.

But even when people are talking netbooks they aren’t thinking of the traditional netbook form factor they’re thinking king sized iPhone. Well not the supersized iPhone that used to hang in the windows of Apple stores, that thing is oversized even by Dom Jolly standards. Most people are thinking of a more sedate size. Too big for pocketing but smaller than a notebook.

It would be nice to see a picture of the tablet but that isn’t going to happen. How about a mock up of one. Good news, Datastronghold has you covered. Their version is 12” by 7” and matches the idea floating around in a lot of people’s heads. If… more...

So you’re wondering what is coming at MacWorld? In one of my columns at Apple Matters I took a wild guess that it would be an oversized iPhone with a USB port to accommodate dongles for your carrier of choice. For me it was all about the internet everywhere.

Hadley Stern thinks differently, well he’s down with the oversized iPhone deal but he has a much better reasoning for his thought that something along these lines will show up at MacWorld. In fact Hadley lists five reasons. Perhaps the best is that Steve gets to say he invented but the other four (economy, atom chip, extending the reach of iTunes, iPhone) are solid as well.

Here’s the interesting thing, a concept like that has been going around Apple longer than the iPhone. The supposed genesis of the iPhone was a Safari Pad that an employee showed to Steve. When Steve saw it he didn’t think “A tablet to browse the web!” He thought “frickin’ iPhone!” and this the ball started… more...

Worried that suddenly popular Netbooks might relegate the iPhone to obscurity? Well you should be! See netbook sales have overtaken sales of the iPhone. For proof check out this post on NetbookBoards. There you have it, according analysts guesses last quarter saw 4.7 million iPhones out the door compared to 5.6 million netbooks. Sorry iPhoners, it is over!

Wait, let’s think about this for just a second. They’ll use any sale of a netbook but only count iPhones. That seems exclusionary. Shouldn’t sales of the iPod touch be included as well? Hold that thought, if we are going to be really fair the better comparison would be netbooks compared to number of smartphones sold. Comparing netbooks to just the iPhone and calling netbooks the winner is like noting that there were more motorcycles sold by all manufacturers sold than Toyota Camrys and concluding that Camrys were on the way out.

So how many smartphones were sold in q3 2008 (the quarter in question)? 36.5 million. That’s right, in a fair comparison smartphones are destroying netbooks, they are six and a half times more popular. None of this means that… more...