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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/09/apple_netbook_rumor/

Taiwan supplier fingered in Apple touch-screen netbook rumor

Newton rising from the grave?

By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco

Posted in Hardware, 9th March 2009 18:48 GMT

Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

A touch-screen netbook from Apple is coming later this year, according to a report by an Asian industry-watching website. We believe that the truth may be more interesting than the rumor.

Taiwan's DigiTimes reports [1] that the Chinese-language daily Commercial Times has said that Wintek [2], a Taiwanese manufacturer of flat-panel displays, will supply their touch-screen displays [3] for "Apple's new netbook," and that shipments will begin in the third quarter of this year.

DigiTimes also reports that the netbook will be manufactured by Quanta Computer [4], the company that, along with Foxconn [5], manufactures [6] Apple's iPhone.

Although this rumor is quickly making the rounds of dozens of worldwide websites - The Guardian [7], for one - we advise taking it with more than the customary grain of salt. That is, if by "netbook" you mean an underpowered laptop with a tilt-up screen and an undersized keyboard.

Although netbooks are one of the few bright spots during the current Meltdown, Apple has repeatedly denied that it is interested in entering this low-cost, low-margin market. Steve Jobs has downplayed [8] Apple's interest in the netbook market, going as far as to say "We don't know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk."

Acting Apple headman Tim Cook has also pooh-poohed [9] the idea of an Apple netbook - but he also left the door open a crack when he was reported [10] to have said that Apple has "ideas" for a netbook.

But what makes us believe that Apple won't release a typical netbook later this year or early next is the simple fact that the Wintek rumor refers to touch-screen displays. Add to that Jobs's assertions [11] that the iPhone is already Apple's netbook offering, and it seems more likely - if the Wintek rumor is, indeed, actually true - that Apple is planning something other than a netbook as we currently know them to be.

Perhaps the rumors of a jumbo iPod touch [12] or laptop Mac are finally coming true - though we've been down that road before [13]. Perhaps Apple will (finally) bring to market an expanded iPhone based on one of its many touch-screen tablet patents [14].

As is their standard operating procedure, Apple won't comment on unannounced products - but we will: Apple won't release a "me-too" netbook. Whatever they're planning, it'll be something else entirely. ®