The case for (and against) an Apple netbook

The iPhone survives quite well in my pocket, and I always make a point of putting keys, pens and coins in the other pocket so as to avoid a scratch, but I'd never toss it in a backpack or purse without a case to protect it.

But we can solve both these issues by going back to the MacBook. If you slap a 10in keyboard underneath the screen and fold it over into a clamshell casing, you can kill two birds with one stone.

So let's try to imagine our Mac netbook: a 10in touch screen with a bare-bones keyboard and a clamshell case. Sort of like a slimmed-down MacBook Air when closed.

The software is the iPhone/iPod touch, but with more room to breathe. Though it uses a home button and icon grid, there's also room to drag windows and top menus. By keeping the software footprint simple, it also keeps hardware requirements down and thus the price stays competitive.

So, it looks like there may just be a model for an Apple netbook after all. That just leaves the question, with the economy in a once-in-a-century tailspin and Steve Jobs currently recovering from fairly serious health issues, will Apple want to release a netbook right now?

If history is any indication, the answer is yes. It just won't be in a time span any of us can predict, and the end result, no doubt very cool-looking, will be nothing like any of us would imagine.