Apple iBook, iNetbook – Why Apple will definitely release a Netbook in 2009

Posted on February 23rd, 2009 by admin

First, Steve Jobs and Netbooks

Steve Jobs has been pretty dismissive of Netbooks, even though they went from under 1 million netbooks sold in 2007 to over 12 million sold in 2008.

  1. Oct 21st, 2008 Steve Jobs said – “Not a lot of them getting sold,”. He also called the iPhone Apple’s entrance in the netbook category.
  2. On further probing, he said – Apple is going to “wait and see … we’ve got some pretty interesting ideas if it does evolve.”
  3. And ended with – “Our DNA won’t let us ship a $500 computer that’s a piece of junk.”

And how has that translated into actual results in end 2008 and early 2009? Well, the NPD Group’s reports state -

  1. Apple, Inc.’s Mac sales dipped six percent in January as Windows PC sales jumped 16 percent, pumped by low-cost netbooks.
  2. Mac retail sales in the U.S. in Dec 2008 were essentially flat last month compared to the same month year earlier. Sales of Windows-based notebooks grew by 23% year to year.
  3. Mac retail sales in the U.S. in Nov 2008 fell 1% from a year ago, even as sales of Windows PCs climbed 7%.
  4. Apple has now lost unit-sales market share for the past three months.

Apple must release an Apple Netbook to win back Marketshare

We are in a terrible economic climate and money is really tough. AIG is going to report $80 billion losses in a day or two, and Bank of America and Citi are both in danger of getting nationalized.

Apple has to realize what’s happening and release an Apple iBook/ Apple netbook to maintain market share. There is just no other way around it – If you have $349 Acer Aspire Ones and $350-$500 priced Asus EeePCs, there’s little chance people will put down $999+ for a MacBook.

Related posts:

  1. The Netbook market – Some research
  2. 2009 – Beginning of a Netbook Era
  3. LG Netbooks – LG X110 Netbook + LG X120
  4. Silicon Alley Insider air their Netbook ignorance
  5. Netbooks – the Operating System Wars

Filed under: Apple iBook

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One Response to “Apple iBook, iNetbook – Why Apple will definitely release a Netbook in 2009”

  1. steffenjobbs, on October 11th, 2010 at 8:47 pm Said:

    >If you have $349 Acer Aspire Ones and $350-$500 priced Asus EeePCs, there’s little chance people will put down $999+ for a MacBook.>

    But you were oh, so wrong about what consumers were going to decide to buy. In 2010, Apple is selling those $999 notebooks along with their $500 and up iPads. Steve Jobs is a lot smarter than most of the CEOs in the tech industry. Netbooks are junk because that’s their DNA. They’re built for the cheapsters of the world, not the discerning consumer looking for quality products with easy usability.

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