In terms of portability, I don't see the value of taking a few inches off a Macbook Air.
The MBA already fits into all backpacks, briefcases and even those funny bags women carry around. It's very thin and light. You can't make it small enough to avoid the need for a backpack/briefcase, ie. it won't fit in your pocket, so what are you trading the screen real-estate for?
The only sensible answer would be 'money', ie. if it'd be less expensive, but Apple / S.J. says they don't know how to make it cheaper.
The point of netbooks is that they are cheap; being small is just a side effect. There are different kinds of small: reducing width/height makes it cheaper, but reducing thickness makes it more expensive. If Apple was going to make a netbook, the Air wouldn't be the place to start. It would make more sense to start with the MacBook and reduce the screen/keyboard size, remove the optical drive, replace the unibody with plastic, and keep the thickness the same (or even increase it).
I remember a quote where steve jobs described the netbook space as "a race to the bottom".
This is true to one extent and to another extent I don't think this market is within apple's laptop scope. Especially considering pricepoints and the recently released macbook pros.
My thoughts about the Air (though I don't really know) was that they sort of put it out there & let Moore's Law get to work.
It's not a very practical product as is.
I imagine the attractiveness of a netbok to Apple is that it is an addition. You can have a laptop or desktop (probably not both) & a netbook & an iphone.
If it is a non cannibalising category, then it's right up Apple's game. They know & love small. It's another opportunity to brag about OSX as Windows isn't right for these. Most importantly, they know & love out-of-the-box.
There's a real market for these. It's certainly not the giant hardware guys that created it. They're supplying happily enough, but it came out of the margins. Microsoft sure isn't pushing it, these are a nightmare for them. Linux isn't working out. Who's left?
Cheap is part of the job description here. Cheap, small & out of the box. Apples is very good at 2 out of those 3. It's also another in for selling full Macs.
"Linux isn't working out"
Why do you say that. Linux has the highest share of this market than any other place. More than 50% and Ubuntu is making a special Vendor only distribution just for Netbooks. Only recently is XP being offered and this as a direct response to Linux.
Well Linux had the first mover advantage. But it seems to be losing ground. I was in two chain retailers recently & neither carried any linux netbooks (but 3-4 windows each). I've seen a couple of these recently:http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22362/53/
And Windows is gaining this ground with a 7 year old product that isn't suitable for this job. All the while cursing every sale they make. They're not exactly gung-ho excited about making brilliant netbooks. But they're still taking over.
If no one challenges & the demand persists, MS may eventually actually come out with some Windows that is suited to the job.
The MBA already fits into all backpacks, briefcases and even those funny bags women carry around. It's very thin and light. You can't make it small enough to avoid the need for a backpack/briefcase, ie. it won't fit in your pocket, so what are you trading the screen real-estate for?
The only sensible answer would be 'money', ie. if it'd be less expensive, but Apple / S.J. says they don't know how to make it cheaper.