During its earnings call today, Apple COO Tim Cook (who is leading Apple day to day with Steve Jobs out on medical leave) fielded a question about netbooks. The market for the small notebooks is red hot, yet Apple hasn’t entered the field yet. Cook attempted to explain why, and Apple’s thoughts on the trend for the future.
Notably, he reiterated Apple’s stance that netbooks, as they exist today, are basically crap. He called their keyboards “cramped,” and their hardware “junky.” “This is not something we would put the Mac brand on,” Cook said. He believes that if people want a small, very portable computer, they should perhaps look at the iPhone or iPod touch. That comment will likely make a lot of people annoyed, but if you think about it, with the increasing numbers of things that those devices can do (and will be able to do with the upcoming 3.0 software), it’s not an entirely ridiculous thing to say.
More importantly though, Cook made it very clear that Apple is watching the netbook space closely to see the consumer response to it. “If we find a way where we can deliver an innovative product — then we’ll do that,” Cook noted. He went on to say that Apple has some “interesting ideas” for new products, and that the upcoming product pipeline is “fantastic.”
There are no shortage of rumors that Apple is already hard at work on a netbook, a tablet — or both. Today’s comments really seem more so than ever to be Apple stalling by downplaying current netbook offerings by other companies. While both Cook and Jobs have said in the past Apple was looking into the market, today Cook seemed to indicate pretty clearly that we can expect something from Apple in the future. And you can be sure it will be more than a new iPhone or iPod touch.
[image via Gizmodo]
Well, other than the device being way too small for practical rapid web surfing or email composing, that makes complete sense.
Hopefully, if apple opens the netbook to developers they won’t be so anal regarding logos and other stupid, arbitrary rules. Fat chance. http://iamned.com/blog/ recession over
If the iPhone had a keyboard, (bluetooth/USB, I don’t care), it’d be a solid netbook – and I’d use it as such. Without it, it’s a very pretty toy that sits in my pocket beside my blackberry.
I agree; I would snap up an iPhone portable keyboard in a second.
Targus had a fold-out keyboard that I used for taking notes with a my Palm m105 during college; and it worked great.
I’m looking for something I can type on when I go to conferences, or when I sit on the bus.
I absolutely agree. Give me a keyboard Apple and I’ll quit my griping.
Stayed tuned for third-party solutions.
The iPhone is going to be open to accessories upon the release of iPhone OS 3.0. I would be very surprised if some enterprising manufacturer didn’t have a keyboard/stand available shortly thereafter.
Keep dreaming. Not a computer just a locked down phone toy.
What if you owned an ipone, netbook, and an ibook? Wouldn’t that be confusing and redundant?
What is an iBook?
The iPhone has really upped my productivity 10x, but in many situations I’m dying to have a full keyboard and bigger screen. Its not the keyboard that bothers me, its that I just would never write out an entire blog post on the thing. Not easy enough to switch between applications, as you’re always losing your place. say I wanted to copy/paste from Safari (I’m on 3.0) to Evernote, every time I go back to Safari I have to wait for the page to reload and vice versa.
Apple is obviously working on devices and most likely will release something in the next year or so – they are known for talking shit on devices that they eventually do launch: Apple TV, iPhone, etc.
I agree re: productivity. But yes, it’s not exactly ideal for something like blogging. Though I have done it from one before!
And yes, exactly right about talking shit about devices then launching one. Which is exactly what I’m sure they’re doing here again
I wonder how much (or little) will separate the processing speed of this summer’s netbooks and the next iPhone? Until it can cut the price of a MacBook Air, perhaps Apple can compete effectively enough once the iPhone OS 3.0 can control third party hardware with the next OS. At that point, the phone will start to resemble a beta version of Spock’s tricorder.
re: Spock’s tricorder – nice.
re: MacBook Air, I’d imagine whatever Apple’s netbook/tablet offering is, it will replace the Air eventually.
The iPhone and iPod Touch need many a new features before they can replace a computer of any kind.
Network printing
Microsoft Office
Flash
File manager
FTP support would be nice
Those are just off the top of my head.
I have an iPhone and love it but I don’t think I will be trading in my laptop anytime in the near future.
You are so right… thanks God somebody mentioned MS Office.
I haven’t used MS Office in 2 years. Have no plans to ever again.
Google Docs is rapidly beginning to replace it for me but it still has a long way to go to completely replace Office.
And all alternative I have tried (namely OpenOffice) I was not a big fan of. Office is far superior IMO.
“I haven’t used MS Office in 2 years. Have no plans to ever again.”
That’s great for you, but not a very helpful comment.
MS Office is still core (and good) for most of us who live outside the Valley. Docs just doesn’t come close except for some specific simplistic scenarios and OO just feels broken.
MG if you cant afford a copy pirate it.
Since god’s COO has pronounced that netbooks are useless and can’t do anything the iPhone doesn’t already do much better, let’s burn them all at the Apple altar and be done with it.
I absolutely can’t imagine an Apple Netbook. It just a contradiction, or not?
Netbook – cheap low-cost limited subnotebook
Apple – premium innovative brand (in terms of reputation)
How can now a premium brand offer a low-cost subnotebook?
Apple will release either a tablet pc or an even smaller version of macbook air. What could be a product between the iPhone and Macbook Air.
But again – a “netbook” is a cheap subnotebook for people who can’t afford normal laptops. Apple is not interested in this target group
Yeah, they’ll call it something else — or it will be a tablet. Whatever it is, it won’t be cheap, don’t worry.
And we will buy it!
Great. I hate cheap looking stuff.
I don’t like cheap-looking stuff either. (But I love cheap stuff, if they have value.)
If you look at these comments, they are exactly analogous to what Steve Jobs said about video-capable “mp3 players” right before Apple released the iPod w/Video.
Tim Cook just made several things very clear about what Apple is going to release to compete with netbooks:
- Something in the form factor of an iPhone (no keyboard)
- Something with a larger screen than what most netbooks have now
- Something that has high quality hardware
- Something that’s NOT competing with the low end on price
This means they are making a tablet. Period.
I pretty much use my iPhone as a netbook. I realize I can’t do everything you can as you could on a netbook but netbook users must also realize their new portable computer can’t do what their desktop can do. It’s all relative. I surf the web and track twitter just fine on my small iPhone. If I need to remote into a computer at work, I can do that from the iPhone. No problem. I don’t understand what the fuss is about. Especially as Apple’s brand doesn’t show up on anything under $599 anyways.
The concern is that the netbook will take away sales from the very profitable laptops
that is undoubtedly an unstated concern — margins. Apple loves high margins, netbooks, as we know them now, don’t have high margins.
Netbooks don’t have high margins because they try to pack big processors, big harddrives and other computer like materials in them.
Take iPhone and make it big, and use the solid state memory, cheap processors, computer-on-a-chip stuff that is thrown into an iphone, and you may very well have a product with high margins, a better UI for the form factor, and is relatively cheap for consumers.
When you aren’t trying to run full-blown Windows (or Ubuntu or whatever) on the device, you open a lot of options.
As a layman and not a techie, in my humble opinion, the idea of “surfing the web” on such a ridiculously small screen is just that: RIDICULOUS. At least that’s how I and I believe most non-techie types feel.
lame reporting…
Look dude if an iphone could do it, why is the netbook market red hot.. and selling 10 times more units then the iphone.
You’re just drinking the cool aid and eating up the excuse why they simply were snoozing while everyone else was cashing in. Fact is this with Steve gone.. they’re already losing and making mistakes and are now busy covering their asses…
And you should at least ask some questions, why everyone else is building netbooks instead of iphone type devices if they can do that…
Pull your head out of your ass… and get some fresh air… do some research and stop writing this garbage…
Your comments makes no sense on a number of levels.
1) You clearly didn’t read the post. I said I believe they ARE going to make netbooks. The iPhone/iPod touch comment is just a way to stall
2) Yes, the company is crumbling clearly with its best Q2 ever
3) what is cool aid?
Love the response. I was wondering about the “cool aid” myself.
On an actually related note, I don’t much care for the idea of a Mac-netbook. There’s no way that they’ll be competing price-wise with your average netbook, so what does it matter? A tablet would be more impressive. Have you seen the video of Sway and Touchgrind being played on a gigantic multitouch table? Now /that/ looked fun.
A reference to the 1978 cult mass-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Jim Jones, the leader of the group, convinced his followers to move to Jonestown. Late in the year he then ordered his flock to commit suicide by drinking grape-flavored Kool-Aid laced with potassium cyanide. In what is now commonly called “the Jonestown Massacre”, 913 of the 1100 Jonestown residents drank the Kool-Aid and died.
One lasting legacy of the Jonestown tragedy is the saying, âDonât drink the Kool-Aid.â This has come to mean, “Donât trust any group you find to be a little on the kooky side.” or “Whatever they tell you, don’t believe it too strongly”.
The phrase can also be used in the opposite sense to indicate that one has embraced a particular philosophy or perspective.
Alice: Hey, did you hear that Joe is working on the Nader campaign?
Bob: Yeah, he really drank the Kool-Aid on that one.
Chris: I’m thinking about attending a PETA rally
Donna: Whatever you do, don’t drink the Kool-Aid!
- Source (Urban Dictionary)
I didn’t write it, I just copied and pasted it
Uh Adam, that was a reference to the spelling error in noooobs comment. Kool-Aid is a drink. “Cool aid” is a cold towel on the forehead.
Yes, the comment is a way to stall, but as a journalist that doesn’t mean you have to back it up. It means you have to critically analyze it and subject it to an objective lens. Comments like:
“That comment will likely make a lot of people annoyed, but if you think about it, with the increasing numbers of things that those devices can do (and will be able to do with the upcoming 3.0 software), it’s not an entirely ridiculous thing to say”
ARE PATENTLY RIDICULOUS! Seriously, it’s just stupid to even imply a comparison between the devices. Have fun using Office on your iPhone as you fly the redeye from SF to NY. Yeah, I saw your comment above, but people with real jobs rely on Office daily.
Bottom line, even if Apple made a netbook, they wouldn’t be able to price it competitively and it wouldn’t sell. I’m guessing it would be a 10″ starting at $800. The issue is that the term “netbook” is really just a marketing term for a cheap computer. Apple doesn’t know how to make cheap computers, so whatever they make, no matter how small, it will never qualify as a “netbook”. Rather, it will just be a small and overpriced computer. In other words, it will be more of the same old Apple.
FYI, for those really hard up, I’m pretty sure you can get OSX86 running on an MSI Wind pretty easily.
Seeing a TechCrunch writer snarking it up about a typo is hilarious.
iPod Touch and iPhone are good mobile Internet devices, but the lack of an optional keyboard, Flash, MS Office or Open Office mean they can’t compete with netbooks. Of course, Apple does have netbooks beat in the baby shaking app department.
you’d think they’d say to buy their macbook air.. not to say that netbooks are stupid, and if they want a piece of shit, buy an iphone
Well, the Air is pretty stupid, so …
yet they have no bluetooth keyboard support yet, apple is meh.
No seriously… they ARE going to add a keyboard to the iPhone… it’s in the roadmap right after they make the [real] two button mouse!
I believe this will be a money maker. I loading up on Apple stock.
I believe that the grammatically challenged noooobs actually meant to write “kool-aid” in reference to the famous 1978 mass suicide of Jim Jones’ followers who drank cyanide laced kool-aid and consequently died in their hundreds.
Ever since then, “drinking the kool-aid” has come to mean accepting or doing something without thinking about it…
Yeah I can’t stand those dinky little netbooks. iPhone or laptops ftw.
I do not see the tablet taking the place of the macbooks because it won’t be able to do all the creative stuff that you can do on the current portable macs and desktops. So the chance of cannibalization is pretty slim. But it will be light enough to lug it all over the place. Each time I use my iPod Touch, I wished it were just a tad larger (like a 5 to 6″ screen) to make it a real killer.
So basically Apple said what they always say about new products: nothing. It would be a first if they came out and said we’re developing a new tablet that will put netbooks to shame.
One of the best NetBooks out there is a Dell Mini 9 with the Apple OS running on it. It is fast, usable, and portable. And if you buy the Mini 9 from Dell’s outlet store (outlet.dell.com), you can pretty much get it for around $250 (plus another $100 for the OS/X).
I personally don’t mind lugging my 17″ MBP everywhere, but having the Dell running OS/X is very useful.
The Dude: Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
Apple wont release a netbook cos you cant cram Mac or i anywhere it in and still have it make sense. Thats why Jobs has been sick to death about the whole thing.
6″x8.5″ touch tablet with optional keyboard and monitor connector.
A couch potato & backpacker tool … will make imac look like a dinosaur
“He believes that if people want a small, very portable computer, they should perhaps look at the iPhone or iPod touch. That comment will likely make a lot of people annoyed, but if you think about it, with the increasing numbers of things that those devices can do (and will be able to do with the upcoming 3.0 software)…”
But I still can’t listen to the streaming audio that I want, and I still can’t watch the streaming video that I want…
My Touch is an internet device that’s crippled for the internet. I don’t care about the size…I can live without a keyboard…I just want to go to, and use, the same web pages that I can with my XP desktop.
Ipods are good for music and nothing else. Want to surf the web? Just use your laptop.
pbbbbbbtttt!
But the apple is far more expensive than netbooks in my country….
hmmm Let’s see my choices,
AT&T offers the iPhone for $199 with a cellular and data plan contract.
They also offer a $50 netbook with Windows XP for a 2 year data plan commitment.
I can use some toy programs to get some productivity done, or, I can get real Office and use Skype to make calls and video conference on the go (along with a unlimited $50 monthly Boost mobile phone).
I was looking at a new Dell netbook for $399 with a HDMI port on it to hook up to my HDTV, an iPhone does not provide such a thing.
I am sure Tim did not mean for this to come off as it sounds and Apple has always been ahead of emerging trends, it’s just they don’t want to win in the computer field. Let’s look at their misses to glory:
New Macbook $1399 (no firewire) – If they would have would have priced this unit at $999 they would dominate laptops.
iMac starting at $1199 – If they would just come out with a 17″ iMac for $699 (with no optical drive), they would dominate the consumer desktop market.
Mac Mini $599 – If the Mac Mini was $399, it would steal the show across the board.
Apple do not want to dominate the computer hardware space, because they easily could with the right pricing. Dissing netbooks in the name of the iPhone is not how you compete with a rapidly changing computer market.
So, oh great, we get to see some elitist 13″ Mac tablet for $1400 running the same ol OSX. Apple, we all love you but for everyone to “get it” why Macs are great, you have to send some cake down to the common folks that can’t pay the high prices to attend your elitist party.
Apple will release either a tablet pc or an even smaller version of mac book air. What could be a product between the i Phone and Mac book Air.
But again – a “net book” is a cheap sub notebook for people who can’t afford normal laptops. Apple is not interested in this target group
If netbooks are crap, why is the mass market buying netbooks?
Products that are crap don’t last long in mass market. However it is now for more than one year netbooks are hot selling.
Maybe Product management at Apple made a big mistake?
Oh my god, do they lock Mac people up in some dark cellar in the bottom of an Apple store except when they let you out to buy stuff and write articles for blogs? I feel like it is 2000 again.
Ok, since you have obviously been out of touch for the past decade, and missed this conversation the innumerable times it has come up in every single Palm, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry or Symbian web site, magazine, book, forum, and conference, let me catch you up.
No, a PDA will never totally replace the need for a small portable computer for 90% of working people. There are too many conflicting design intents. The goal of pocketability and ease of use as a handheld device imposes too many compromises, which make it impossible for a PDA to ever function as a good general computing device. No matter what you stick under the hood, and how many specialty apps you cram into it, and how tricked out the OS is, a PDA will only ever work as an aid to perform a subset of all the things people need to do while traveling.
This has been tried by an unimaginable number of people, with every handheld OS ever conceived, with the advocates of their favored platform jumping through as many hoops as necessary to try and make their work as handhled friendly as possible, and still the results are always the same. No matter how good the device may be, it still does not obviate the need for a notebook of some sort. Really, this debate is almost as old as the web itself. There will always be that one thing you need to do, that just requires a notebook.
So yes, it actually is an entirely ridiculous thing to say, unless you somehow were dropped onto this planet a week ago, and immediately landed a job writing for a tech blog. Anyone else would have realized from the first 5,000 times someone brought up this idea, that anyone suggesting their handheld can replace a notebook, is obviously someone trying to sell you a handheld.
The iPhone has an even more cramped keyboard than a netbook. what is tim smoking?
I’m glad MG Siegler has brought his apple fanboy-ness to Techcrunch. Telling people who want a netbook to get an iPhone IS, in fact, a completely ridiculous thing to say.
Keep touting the company line MG.
Are not all of apple’s notebooks as small as a netbook? – they just cost alot
Ugh … I would really love one of these.. Sub $500 please Mr Apple!
Tim deflected and focused on the iphone and ipod touch because they are working on a mini book. He is trying to distract competitors. It was a nice strategic move. Netbooks are hot and he doesn’t like anything stealing his show. In fact, I’ll be at costco today picking one up. I’ve held off on the iphone as a new one may be here before September. Much respect.
Putting aside the fact that this post doesn’t question a thing Tim Cook says, Cook’s comments set a real standard for being insulting and dumb.
To each their own, to be sure, but I and a lot of people have about zero interest in looking at an iPhone-sized screen for more than about 80 seconds. (How do people do it, anyway? Hold it in front of their face, get one of those things like Bob Dylan uses to hold a harmonica while he plays guitar?)
As people have noted, the blindingly obvious response to Cook’s comments about physical limitations, which he made in the course of singing the IStuff’s praises as an alternative. BS that a 7-year-old can see through is really bad BS.
And the “junky” comment. My Asus has lasted longer than my first and last iPod, had considerably more use than the truly junky iPod. Oh by the way, I replaced with a Sony that got much better reviews, has a fine UI, has lasted longer and cost less.
I think my nephew’s had four iPod’s die in the last six years. I know too many people who’ve had too many problems with Macs.
Understood that the plural of anecdote is not “data,” but there are too many problems-with-apple-stuff stories to ignore. It is a marketing masterstroke to get a premium price for “quality” when a not-trivial number of products haven’t held up like my Asus, Sony, and HP desktops.
Cook; you’re a twat.
iPhone has a ton of internt capabilities and great features, but I don’t think I could trade in my netbook just yet for it. Currently I am facing a problem with my iPhone that it randomly shuts off 2-3 times a day without me doing anything. The screen just does not come back on for a decent amount of time, 5-10 minutes. If anyone else is having this problem or knows how to fix it please let me know.