Where's Apple? Netbook Sales Skyrocket Despite Recession

That is super growth, especially when you consider that netbook sales surged right as the economy downturn. The report expects that total netbook shipments for 2008 will reach 14 million units in 2007. the previous quarter. A recent DisplaySearch research report reveals that the mini laptop market saw massive growth in the third quarter of this year, with sales volumes suddenly spiking a whopping 160 percent.

The absence of Apple in the low-cost netbook field is causing the company to miss out on a very hot market, and that absence is especially surprising given the company's close relationship with Intel and AT&T.

Sale at RadioShack of a $99 Acer Aspire One with integrated AT&T service as bundling netbooks with mobile broadband service is the next trend in computing world. So why AT&T?

Apple's Steve Jobs put down the netbook market as "nascent" and low-volume in Apple's most recent earnings call, and he indicated that Apple is looking the netbook market from afar and that the company has some good ideas under its' shirt if things take off.

In this respect, it's somehow sadly ironic that a product category that was originally invented for so-called "hot emerging markets" now. But as of the third quarter of this year, we live in a Wal-Mart kind of world, where everyone has to learn to live with lower margins, and lower volume. But Apple is a high-margin, low-volume company, which makes it a poor fit for a "Wal-Mart product" like the netbook. The netbook market is blowing up right now precisely because it's a low-margin, high-volume space. Apple on the other hand only concern about this : margins.