Like a moth to a sizzling trend, Apple (AAPL) will fly in to the netbook flame and get burned.
The business will unveil a 10-inch touch-screen tablet personal computer someday this year, say analysts. Not only does Apple wish to showcase its style prowess, the company desperately requirements a whole new hit to revitalize its personal computer line-up. Mac income fell 16% from year-ago amounts very last month.
No question, the tablet will dazzle Apple enthusiasts who usually do not believe two times about having to pay upwards of $2,000 for that newest, greatest Mac. But past the core fan base, Apple will discover what other Personal computer makers have acknowledged for the even though: Customers discover massive tablets difficult to swallow.
(My colleague James Rogers writes about how Apple could have decent margins on Netbooks.)
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Gateway, Lenovo all make tablet notebooks for around $1,400, and none score well on any reputation indexes.
There's a much more eye-opening index that Apple investors ought to almost certainly heed. 9 in the 10 bestselling pcs at Amazon as of today have been netbooks. And only one marketed for over $400. In contrast, the average cost of an Apple computer is $1,
Windows 7 Home Basic Key,400,
Windows 7 Starter Product Key BBC NEWS Business, or the equivalent of three-and-a-half netbooks.
Apple isn't completely oblivious to the cheapness behind the netbook's attractiveness; it is just the organization has often believed that design trumps price tag. The iPod,
Genuine Windows 7, by way of example,
Office 2007 Key, crushed the cheaper competition in songs players.
Last year,
Microsoft Office 2010 Product Key, well just before netbooks became the obvious buyer hit,
Office 2007 Standard Product Key, Apple chief Steve Employment found the course pcs had been headed and started out perform on a tablet sub-notebook, in accordance to folks familiar together with the advancement options.