Apple Confirms the Expected – No Netbook

With Apple disclosing the latest quarterly earnings, as well as answering some of the media's burning questions, the company has yet again confirmed its lack of interest in the netbook market. In fact, the words of Apple's current acting CEO perfectly resonate with one of our latest articles in the “personal thoughts” category, stating, “For those who want a small computer that does browsing/email, they might want an iPhone or iPod Touch.”

During the FY 2009 Q2 conference call, Apple said the results exceeded its expectations, despite the hard times the industry was enduring. Apple posted a revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. In the year-ago quarter, the company posted a revenue of $7.51 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share. The gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Just like with the last conference call, the media has again tried to get Apple to confirm its working on a netbook. Tim Cook, COO and current acting CEO at Apple, revealed that the company was not changing its stance on the light-weight, web-surfing portables.

"For us it's about doing great products. When I'm looking at what's sold in the Netbook market, I see cramped keyboards, junky hardware, very small screen, bad software,” Cook said. “Not a consumer experience that we would put the Mac brand on. As it exists today, we're not interested in nor would it be something customers would be interested in the long term,” Apple's COO stated during yesterday's conference call.

Cook added that, admittedly, “[Apple is] looking at the space.” However, he explained, “For those who want a small computer that does browsing/email, they might want an iPhone or iPod Touch.”

Cook went on to provide arguments, telling that, “If we find a way to deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, we'll do that. We have some interesting ideas. The product pipeline is fantastic for the Mac. We've historically exceeded the market rate of growth, especially given this economy is an extraordinary achievement. These netbook sales are propping up the unit numbers for the industry. We are very pleased with our performance.”