Apple’s Ideal Netbook

Published by Sean Long on March 9, 2009 under Blog Posts

Imagine if Apple made a netbook sized enclosure that you slide your iPhone/iPod Touch into and it turns the device into a netbook. The enclosure could house; a screen, keyboard, trackpad (use the iPhone/iPod Touch screen), extended battery, speakers, SD card slot, usb port(s) all connected to the devices dock connector. The beauty of this is that the iPhone/iPod Touch already contains the most expensive bits.

Will Apple do something like this? I don’t know. But if any one company could pull it off it would be Apple, they do control the stack top to bottom.

Pros:

  • Fast boot
  • Apple controls hardware and software, so doable
  • Mature App Store could be expanded for “netbook” apps. Ex. A full version of Safari, TextEdit, Preview, Terminal etc
  • Built in cell data service and/or WiFi

Cons:

  • Hard to answer your phone when docked in netbook, Bluetooth headset could remedy
  • Apple would probably charge too much, and require a new version with each iPhone/iPod Touch change
  • Cell partners may not like the surge in data usage ;)
  • The extended battery may need to be quite big to power the larger screen