Apple Netbook almost definate – if not a netbook a 9″ Apple touchscreen netbook type thing
The respected Taiwan Economic News claims that contract manufacturer Quanta is "expected to add Sony and Apple as clients for the contract manufacture of Netbook computers in 2009."
Quanta already builds netbooks for a number of companies including Acer, Lenovo, HP and BenQ but its vice chairman and president C.C. Leung is preparing for the worse expecting zero growth year on year as even the red hot Netbook segment isn't spared by the global recession.
The company is expected to sell 37 million units in 2008 and enrolling Sony and Apple could be crucial if Quanta wants to smash these shipment figures by next year.
Sony and Apple are the only two remaining popular notebook manufacturers that have yet to launch Netbooks.
Quanta is a major partner for Apple having manufactured everything from iPods, iPhones, Apple iMac and Macbooks for the technology company.
What's more interesting, given that Macworld expo is coming up soon, is that a Apple is talking to OEM in Asia to produce either a device with a 7-inch or a 9-inch screen which will interact seamlessly with iTunes App store and almost certainly be Apple's answer to the Netbook tidal wave. In otherwords, an ipod Touch but bigger and better.
We reckon it could look like this:
Intel Atom netbook processor
1gb ram
32gb SSD storage
Touchscreen
7" or 9"
Handwriting recognition.
£499 (well, its Apple and its bound to be more expensive than a cheap netbook).
We are sooooo excited!
It will be interesting to see if Apple does indeed enter the netbook market. However from what I have read Apple doesn’t seem interested in entering a low end product market like netbooks.
Apple will be late to the netbook party, but will do something different or special. They’ve had time to analyse the situation. The Macbook touch is a great dream, but realistic for me.