An analyst is betting Apple will introduce a pair of netbooks in
January, even though Steve Jobs just two months ago said he wasn’t
ready to.
"I don’t have any inside information," said Ezra
Gottheil, a Technology Business Research analyst, in an interview with
Computerworld. "This is just by triangulation."
Gottheil backs
his speculation by noting the declining state of the economy as well as
the booming success of inexpensive netbooks. These factors combined
will force Apple to introduce a netbook as soon as January at Macworld
Expo in San Francisco, Gottheil says.
However, Gottheil’s guess comes as nothing
new. Using the same reasoning (i.e., the collapsing economy and the low
cost of netbooks), some analysts were predicting
that Apple would unveil a netbook at its special notebook event in
October. But Jobs proved them wrong when he introduced only a refresh
for the MacBook family and a new LED cinema display.
Jobs even explicitly said during an October earnings call that he felt the netbook category was too "nascent" for Apple.
"We’ll
wait and see how that nascent category evolves, and we’ve got some
pretty interesting ideas if it does," said Jobs, during a
question-and-answer session.
While it’s true Jobs doesn’t rule
out the possibility of an Apple netbook in the future, I would consider
that quote as hinting at plans farther down the line — not as soon as
January. Jobs is a tricky man, but releasing Mac netbooks just two
months after saying he isn’t ready to would make the CEO come off as a
liar.
The rumors have been quiet about what exactly Apple’s
major launch will be at Macworld Expo. The only solid idea we have for
Macworld is that a new Mac Mini is coming,
according to an Apple corporate employee who contacted Wired.com. But
that hardly sounds exciting enough to be the big item of the event.
So what’s going to be the highlight of the show? Your guess is as good as ours (and Gottheil’s). We’ll continue to dig around and see what we can come up with.
Apple will unveil netbooks next month, says analyst [ComputerWorld]
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Photo: lindawild/Flickr
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