Netbooks for creative elite, iPads for passive masses
Obvious, no? But this could save the laptop industry, if iPads are seen as tools for tools, while Netbooks and other minimachines are for people with something to say.
Apple iPads are for passive consumers of mounds of video content, whereas Netbooks and other laptops will increasingly be limited to use as tools for creative people who actually have something to say, reports a team of Goldman Sachs analysts led by James Covello: "iPad is focused squarely on information consumption, versus information production."
Obvious, no? Except this could make laptops cool again, if savvy marketers can convince young Americans that iPads are tools for the passive consumer masses, while Netbooks and other minimachines are for creative people who actually have something to say. This would reverse the old divide between PCs for the masses and Apples for artsy professionals.
Excerpts and summary of Goldman's Apple iPad vs Microsoft etc. and Netbooks report at Financial Times' Alphaville site here.