Apple's Netbook: Take II

Suffice to say, I have substantially reconsidered my ideas on Apple's inevitable upcoming release of something in the "netbook" category:

Gone is the notion of an iPod TouchMax - an overgrown version of the Touch. More and more, it just doesn't seem to make sense fitting that into the "netbook" category, although the possibility of another device that is indeed a larger version of the touch, is still viable.

But I just can't see this touch screen thing sitting on a cafe table in any usable fashion, and I don't believe the netbook crowd is looking for a giant touch screen to dab around on. Not with the popularity of chat, SMS, Facebooking and blog journaling as well as document typing - on the HP Mini and Acer Aspire and such, that is...

So... Introducing...

The MacBook Air Puff

With Sony selling its version of the netbook for a retarded 900 bucks on average (with an 8" screen no less!) - wow, there's a hole in price points big enough to drive a MacBook truck through!

You're going to see an 11" screen on the Puff, because this featherweight is going to make all current netbooks look like underpowered smartphones in a rainstorm. An eleven-inch fits in very neatly along with 13, 15 and 17... and it's so perfectly "not too small, not too big"-ish. It will also be the baddest and the biggest on the inside, at least for the high-end version.

Based on this black hole in price points it looks to be selling at $499 - 699 with the former model selling like Steve Jobs' hotcakes at a Berkeley bake sale.

Timing? The real world seems to milk things longer than I think they ought to, but it just makes so much sense to release this for summer in June along with distro of iPhone 3.0 - and then hit the fall market with...

...yeah the next BIG thing: the Apple-branded digital television using LG screen technology, a device that will be as ubiquitous in college dorm rooms as white ear buds are on a New York subway.

In the world of netbook computers, maybe clouds do have silver linings... or is that just the aluminum MacBook Air Puff floating by?