Originally Posted By: drakino
Originally Posted By: Dignan
I still do not see how this creates a new category. Not at that price.

According to Jobs: "The problem is netbooks aren’t better at ANYTHING. They’re just cheap laptops." So, uh, they're better at being affordable. I know what he means, and I'm not going to claim that netbooks are better than the iPad, but they're certainly cheaper. And honestly I can do more with them because I'm not locked down by Apple.

So, after watching the keynote last night, I figured I'd try to clarify this from Apple's point of view (but not necessarily defend it). Basically Apple is trying to justify this device as a 3rd category, between the iPhone and a MacBook. His point was that for a product to sit in that space, it has to be better at certain tasks then the phone or laptop. Netbooks are just cheep underpowered laptops running the same software, so they don't do anything better then a laptop, and don't create a third category. They instead cut into another category, and frustrate users who are trying to replace a laptop with a netbook.

I agree with the whole rest of your post, but I still take issue with the rest of that first paragraph.

I think I should have separated those statements I made a little more. They were intended as two separate statements addressing two parts of the announcement. I was not at all claiming that netbooks were "the 3rd category." I was merely pointing out the immediate contradiction in Jobs' statement that "netbooks aren't good at anything; they're just cheap laptops." That statement alone is contradictory, as long as you define cheap as merely "less expensive."

But I get the impression that you don't. Well, then I have to ask: have you used a netbook? I mean, on a regular basis? I own an MSI Wind U100, about 13 months old now, and I think it's fantastic. All these claims that netbooks are slow is bullcrap. I'm running Windows 7 with zero speed issues, and my bootup time is short. I will agree that they are currently incapable of playing HD Youtube streams, but that's flash, and the iPhone/iPad can't do flash at all. They can play HD video, but it's specially formatted for that specific device (I can't exactly throw an HD MKV file on there, can I?).

Anyway, I'm rambling. I see no problems with netbooks in terms of speed. I will grant you, however, that the iPad improves on them when it comes to readability. I occasionally try to read digital comic books on my netbook, and it's a pretty miserable experience. But still, that's not something I'm going to spend $500+ for.
_________________________
Matt