Kyle LeBoeuf

I’ll admit to being intrigued by the idea of netbooks when they first started to creep into the portable computing market. Portable, affordable, and packing a ton of battery life, it was really easy to see why they took off, especially with the economy in the state that its in.

But the problem is that you get what you pay for. What you get in affordability and portabilty, you lose in usability.

I’m not just talking about raw computing power. While the computing power in these little machines is laughable, you don’t really need a lot of computing power to surf the web, check email, and maybe type a small paper in Microsoft Word. I’m talking about being able to use the computer for long periods of time, or actually get any serious work done.

I understand the need for small computers. I have owned and used a small 12″ Dell notebook for the past year-and-a-half, but that computer had a full sized keyboard (meaning actual keysizes); I didn’t get hand cramps when typing big papers.

With all that in mind, it intrigued me a bit whenever I read this article today talking about the popularity of netbooks over Apple’s portables among students purchasing computers for this upcoming school year. While I understand the idea behind spending only a few $100 on a computer, I don’t agreee with it.

I work for an Apple reseller, so I am well aware of the cost of Apple’s portable computers when compared to what competitors have on their shelves and websites. But at the same time, having worked with both sides of the market (PC and Mac) in the past 4 years, I also understand the benefits gained when using Apple products as opposed to PC products, including the low-price netbooks that have gained so much popularity today.

I am currently typing this post on a 13″ white Macbook. I love this thing. It always works and I never have any problems with it. Its worth about $1000 and it may seem expensive for being the cheapest portable Mac, but its way more functional than the netbooks out there today will ever be.

I am waiting for a company to come out with some kind of ground breaking product in that market before I change my sentiments on it and actually break down and buy one of the stupid things.

I have a strong feeling that such a ground-breaking, industry-changing product can only come from one place.

I’ll give you a hint, their offices reside in Cupertino, California.