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Last updated: Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Reports from the Far East have added fuel to the rumors that Apple is planning to enter the fast-growing netbook market this year. The Dow Jones Newswire, citing sources “close to the situation,” confirmed Monday’s reports by the Commercial Times of Taiwan that Apple is working with Taiwan’s Wintek and Quanta Computer on a touchscreen netbook. The new device, which will “likely have monitor screens that are between 9.7 inches and 10 inches,” could appear as early as the second half. Dow Jones suggested that multiple companies, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Acer, are focusing on netbooks to offset a substantial decline in sales of desktop computers. New Form Factor? According to Al Hilwa, program director of application development software for IDC, the relative immaturity of the netbook may be appealing to Apple. “My sense here is that Apple has an opportunity to revolutionize the netbook form factor,” Hilwa said. “The screen size on netbooks is more suited for many activities (e.g. reading books) than MP3 players or cell phones, while the device can maintain the generality of a full PC.” Hilwa said an intermediate form factor is waiting to be defined that is between a PC and a smartphone. He suggested Amazon’s Kindle is about the right size, but pointed out that it’s “a specialized reading device with no video capability of note.” “Most people don’t read eight hours a day and are willing to charge their machine once a day,” Hilwa said, “but love the portability of a universalish machine which they can take everywhere (though not necessarily use in the car or while walking). Apple can define this category if it plays its cards right. The company can rescue the form factor from the doldrums of cheapness into something worthwhile to have, and can put a vision for what future notebooks might aspire to…

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More Reports Fuel Rumors of an Apple Netbook

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