Why Apple Has No Netbooks

Apple doesn't have any netbooks. This trend can be explained by looking at Apple's history, Apple's philosophy, and Apple's recent products.

Apple's History

The Mac is Apple's computer. Macs are more expensive than PCs, but they give a generally higher quality experience than PCs give.

The iPhone is more expensive than all other phones on the market, but the iPhone is popular because it does what it is supposed to do, and it does it well.

Apple's Philosophy

Throughout Apple's history, it is apparent that Apple has never had products that were considerably cheaper than any third party and their counterpart. Apple believes that quality is better than quality. 

iPad & MacBook Air

Steve Jobs said it himself: if he wants to succeed, he has to create a product that does things better than anything else. Netbooks do nothing better than laptops, and the only reason that netbooks are successful is their aggressive pricing.

Some people say that the MacBook Air is Apple's netbook, but it's not. Netbooks go from $200-$400, and the MacBook Air is $999. That's two and a half times the cost of a netbook. It's definitely not priced aggressively, and for that reason I wouldn't count the Macbook Air as Apple's netbook.

The iPad is the closest that Apple is going to put its product line to a netbook, and if you really wanted to, you could call the iPad Apple's netbook. What makes this so interesting is that, unlike a netbook, the iPad does email, web browsing, photos, and Apps better than a laptop, so I wouldn't even call the iPad Apple's netbook.