Analyst: Apple will launch netbook competitor in response to slowdown

Despite the launch of a new line of MacBooks just last month, the current economic climate will force Apple to roll out a lower-priced laptop to compete with netbook offerings currently flooding the market, according to an analyst. Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research noted that, "Apple is facing the possibility that as the economic news gets worse, that they're increasingly pricing themselves out of an important market. Economic conditions are accelerating this."

If anything, Apple's concern about how the economic climate is impacting sales is also shared by some of the world's largest manufacturers. Samsung Electronics issued a warning earlier this week about cellphone market growth over the next two years. James Chung, a spokesman for Samsung, said, "As for next year, it is possible that the market could post a single-digit or even negative growth."

The opinion is that Apple will not directly compete in terms of price or size. Gottheil asserts, though, that the company will respond with an entry-level notebook that can compete with the $300-$500 price tags of most netbooks on the market today. Any attempts to predict the features of such a laptop will be nothing more than guesswork, at this point; though, it is safe to say the final product will be able to differentiate itself from the current netbook market. The price is unlikely to be less than $500, based on remarks by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who said, "We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that."

Indeed, Jobs himself opened the door to a possible shift in strategy. During a conference call with Wall Street analysts in late October, Jobs reportedly said, "We'll wait and see how that nascent category evolves. And we've got some pretty interesting ideas if it does evolve."

To read more:
- check out this article from ComputerWorld
- check out this article from redOrbit

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