Originally Posted By: Dignan
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."

The problem is, when you remove the first part of the statement trying to define the third product category, the second part is out of context. It was said to help define what a third category would be, and that (in Apple's eyes) a netbook fails to fill that role. If Apple released a MacBook Mini, it would just be a cheep laptop in their lineup that performed worse then a full laptop, and not a third product category they are trying to create with the iPad.

Originally Posted By: Dignan
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?).

I nearly bought a netbook to be my only laptop, and did evaluate quite a few of them. Many of my coworkers have one, and my local Frys also has quite a few on display. So I had the ability to test drive quite a few and talk to owners. In the end, I bought a MacBook Air instead.

The reason I had considered one is that they are nice as far as size and weight. Since I have a beefy desktop (Mac Pro), I wanted a small and light system that could still meet my demands. In the end, the demands were too high for what netbooks can offer, due to the underpowered Atom and integrated graphics. The keyboards on nearly all of the ones I tried were terrible, with only a few that seemed ok. Many had weird quirks with the trackpad due to the layout (The HP on the top of my list had the buttons on the sides of the trackpad, not the bottom).

Basically, the problem with netbooks for me is that they do indeed try to be a cheap laptop, and if I'm going to buy a laptop, I want one that can meet my needs. They provide just enough to make you think it's a full computer, but when pushed, they give way too soon. The MacBook Air on the other hand offers a modern dual core processor and an NVidia 9400m, along with a full sized keyboard, bright and readable screen, and still a very slim and light form factor.

The iPad isn't trying to be a laptop, so up front my expectations are set on what it can do, instead of what it can't. Similarly I don't criticize my Nooks inability to browse the web or playback video because it isn't meant to. But a netbook is sold as a normal computer, and thus I'm critical of how well it does normal computing functions.

Mind you, I'm still not completely sold on the iPad concept for my personal needs. However, I do see potential in what Apple is trying to do. Instead of trying to shoehorn an existing setup into a smaller, cheeper package, they are trying to make an actual product with legitimate and unique uses.