Netbooks have become The In Thing in the PC market, with the sales figures backing it up – they helped keep the floor under the notebook sales segment in what was a tough 2008. Now Apple is coming out, presumably laying the groundwork for their own netbooks, by saying that the current crop are all crap.

Compared to Apple’s lofty standards of course, this is quite a reasonable thing to say. But we don’t all like to pay x4 for our kit as Mac buyers (and I’ve been one…) are known to do. In actual fact I’d content that netbooks are perfectly powered and tailored for what they do; which is not heavy work. Netbooks are internet browsers and office lite machines, for an 8.9" machine (or a 10.something", depending on your preference) you’re getting a lot in a fully functioning laptop with WiFi, a webcam and some added goodies, depending on the SKU you go for, like bluetooth.

The most recent I’ve seen cross our warehouse is HP’s offering, the Mini Note 2133, and it looks to add a bit of HP style to what some might call Fischer Price PC’s (in design terms.) It’s a testament to how mainstream netbooks are becoming, I suppose, that design and aesthetics are becoming a major consideration to manufacturers like HP, Samsung and Sony (even if Sony and co don’t quite get it with their pricing… €900 I saw for a Sony ultra portable in Schipol the other day. Crazy. (The 2133 goes for €249, for example – and for that you’re getting a 160GB HDD and 1GB RAM)

I’ll be interested to see the MacNetBook, though I don’t think I’ll be dropping what I assume will be somewhere between €600 – €900 for the pleasure. Apple do make exceedingly good products, but to say that the current crop of netbooks are not up to scratch is to miss the point: It’s up to scratch for what they’re used for.