Apple Inc plans to introduce a touch-screen netbook computer as early as the second half of this year, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday, a move that may give the company a sales boost as demand for desktops slows.
The company is working on the laptops with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and Wintek Corp (勝華科技), Dow Jones said yesterday, citing two people close to the situation. The machines’ screens may measure about 10 inches, Dow Jones said.
Apple may be looking to netbooks to revive sales growth. Sales of netbooks, which cost less than other personal computers and perform basic functions, will almost double this year, even as the total PC market shrinks 12 percent, researcher Gartner said this month.
Jill Tan (陳玉麗), Apple’s spokeswoman in Hong Kong, declined to comment on the report.
Carol Hsu (�?@), a spokeswoman for Taoyuan-based Quanta, the world’s biggest maker of notebook computers, and Jay Huang (黃忠傑), a spokesman at Taichung-based Wintek, the world’s second-largest maker of flat panels for mobile phones, also declined to comment.
Companies across the PC industry are grappling with the success of netbooks, which typically cost less than US$500 and provide Web and e-mail access.
The machines shot to popularity last year with sales of 11.7 million units, and shipments will rise to 21 million this year, Gartner said.
Intel Corp, the world’s largest maker of semiconductors, began selling a less-expensive chip called Atom last year, using the product to create the market for netbooks.
Analysts, including Brian Marshall at Broadpoint AmTech in San Francisco, have said Apple may introduce a netbook.
Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs has sought to quash that rumor, saying last October that Apple doesn’t know how to make a US$500 computer that’s “not a piece of junk.”
Sales growth at Apple will slow to 8 percent this fiscal year from 35 percent last year, a Bloomberg survey of analysts said.
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