...and if they do, I don't think it'll fare well at all.  Sure it'll make a decent amount of Apple fans who've been asking for one happy, but in our current financial situation is it a smart product to release?  To me netbooks are the opitomy of a discretionary income purchase.  They're not powerful enough to do a lot of things that most people want from a Mac (things like video editing) and yet they're not small or cheap enough to compete with a smartphone.  So who will purchase an Apple netbook?  One would probably assume a business user, someone who's on the road frequently and doesn't need a powerful machine - this person would favor portability over processing power.  Does it sound like I'm describing an existing Apple product?  Ohhh that's right, the Macbook Air!

So aside from the fact that the product doesn't fit easily into their product line, are there any other reasons why I might think it won't happen?  Well, if I were a betting man I'd put my life savings on it not being at Macworld.  A netbook is a big product addition, one that I'm sure Steve Jobs would want to demo for the community.  We all know that Jobs isn't doing the keynote at Macworld this year as Apple moves away from the trade show, so I'm assuming there won't be any earth-shattering announcements, nor should there be.  Based on the latest reports of how retailers fared during the holiday season, it would seem that we consumers aren't too happy to part with our dollar in this time of economic turmoil (or, in many cases, we don't have a dollar to part with in the first place).  So you're telling me that Apple's going to release a product meant to snap up discretionary income in a time when there's very little to be had, especially considering the solidity of their current hardware lineup?  It just doesn't make sense to me.

If anything I wouldn't be surprised if Apple killed a product or two.  The Mac Mini has been in its death throws for a while, perhaps they'll do away with it now.  I'd expect Apple to focus on their strengths by making those strong products even better, as was showcased with their notebook refresh not too long ago.  I wouldn't be surprised if at Macworld we saw some significant software enhancements.  Whether iLife gets a new, fresh coat of paint or iWork is revamped, software makes sense.  Software is the perfect way to refresh your product without having a large financial investment in hardware, and it's a relatively cheap product to sell to the consumers.  Expect Phil Schiller to spend some time talking about Snow Leopard, the latest version of OS X.

I'd also like to see an iPhone refresh, but that's just because I'm going to be in the market for an iPhone pretty soon.  With my luck Apple will probably put out a new model just after I purchase the current 3G.  Anyways, leave a comment and let me know if you think I'm way off-base here.  Does the Apple netbook make sense to you?  Why?  Leave a comment!

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