Originally Posted by
ScottC
I think the final numbers for 2008 will look really bad for them - the Netbook market is killing Apple. As usual, they completely missed the opportunity to make their own Netbook, and a lot of people are just buying a Dell Mini 9 and turning it into a Hackintosh.
It's not that simple though.
MacBook was their big-seller and it probably took years for them to develop the unibody models which they intro'd only in the last quarter of 2008.
They probably set up their supply-chain around MacBooks, based on it being their best-selling Mac for years.
Sure they could put out a netbook and I hope they do (with multitouch, which is better for smaller form-factors) but they have to figure out how to position it so that it doesn't cannibalize their mainstays.
Maybe price it high enough that they get good margins but in order to do that, they have to offer value that isn't in the market already.
BTW, I thought they still had a good earnings report for the final quarter of 2008.
Oh and the hackintosh crowd is not their customer base. Those are the people who complain about not having FLAC on iPods or iPhones not playing Divx videos.
They did well without catering to that crowd.