It’s Internets rumor time! Today’s edition: Apple is potentially working on a new multi-touch netbook. Rumors suggest that it would not include any keyboard and it would bridge the gap between the iPhone and a laptop. Om Malik believes that this one is true and cites some evidence that this could be Apple’s next project.
The rumors originate from Chinese sources surrounding the parts that would be produced for this product and the contracts to produce parts for a currently unknown product. Take it with a grain of salt, but rumors of the iPhone were started in the same manner.
Apple’s COO Tim Cook said that the company was “watching the [Netbook] space,” but wouldn’t release a product line with “smaller screens [and a] cramped keyboard.”
Furthermore, developers have noticed similarities in the code for the Safari 4 beta and the version of Safari on the iPhone. Charles Ying, a developer for WebKit, said:
“I’m guessing that multi-touch user interactions are more positionally accurate due to direct user manipulation. That might explain some of the slight inconveniences Apple is making to pursue a unified multi-touch but full computing interface. I don’t know if Apple’s Netbook will run full Mac OS X, but I’m pretty sure that Safari 4’s user interface will at least be consistent.”
At the other end of this line of thinking, I don’t really think that Apple would be rushing to get into the Netbook market right now. Netbooks are an extremely niche product and they already have an ultraportable in the MacBook Air. In fact, the iPhone can pretty much do anything an Apple-based netbook could theoretically do… it’s just smaller than the rumored netbook.
Personally, a netbook is something I’d want a physical keyboard for. Sure, I don’t like the cramped keyboards on most netbooks, but it’s a product I would use for liveblogging at events like E3, TGS, and so on. I type relatively fast on the iPhone, but it’s never going to approach how fast I can type on a real keyboard. Sure, the battery life on my 13″ MacBook isn’t anywhere near what I’d get on a netbook, but it’s pretty light and powerful.
Apple has done some amazing things with their multi-touch technology, but I don’t think they are ready to give up the keyboard on a “real” laptop just yet. This is why the newest MacBooks utilize a multi-touch trackpad in addition to the keyboard.
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