It is my favorite rumor of last days. All the websites monitoring Apple are full of the new product in preparation – an excellent subnotebook being prepared by Apple. They promise, the subnotebook should an excellent extension of the portfolio offered by Apple to its computer oriented customers.

They usually make a remark, there was a similar thing in the portfolio and it is not that far. It was a 12´ iBook. But, the reason for a small iBook was different – it was launched, when the LCD displays were expensive and to make a smaller display offered a nice possibility to produce a cheaper notebook. Nowadays, the LCD displays are not a huge issue for the manufactures and there are other items driving the manufacturing the costs.

I can imagine Apple will bring an excellent and nice subnotebook to the market. As usually, the design will be excellent and the subnotebook will be equipped with the high-end features making a big difference from the competitors operating on the market. But also, there are some limitations rising from the size of the whole subnotebook.

The main advantage is the size and weight of such a device. Honestly, when tripping, what do you need from your computer? You usually do not need a large hard disc to store your data; you do need the ultimate speed of the processor. What I would value more is the weight of the whole device. When I have to walk for the whole day with my MacBook Pro, including the power supply, I really feel my shoulders hurt. And I can say – my MacBook Pro is pretty light. When I have to walk with my Fujitsu Siemens notebook from work, it is much worse. You know, it is a solid German work including a lot of solid German steel. I believe. That is the main advantage of the subnotebook – you can really travel with it.

The space limit is the main disadvantage. The keyboard has to use limited space, which means, the keys on the keyboard are smaller, than you would expect and there are more functions combined on the single key. Also the space for a touchpad is limited so the usage of the subnotebook is a huge limitation. The components inside must be smaller and there is no space for fans so the speed of the device must be limited not to boil it.

There are rumors, Apple will not incorporate hard disc, but the device will use just FLASH RAM. It is a very interesting idea, but I am worried about the whole solution. FLASH RAM is small and do not consume a lot of energy, so it is a big plus for the subnotebook. But as I remember, the number of “write operations” is hardly limited to a certain number and then the memory is damaged. And the number is not that high – it is about 1 million “write operations” to the same position. It can look like a huge amount with a nice contingency for the use, but when you have a partition table and index of all the files in the FLASH RAM, and then the number of “write operations” is enormous and can pretty quickly destroy the memory.

The market for subnotebook is very limited. It is said, it is about 6-7% of the whole notebook segment. Taking into account the size of the Apple’s share, it does not look for a huge potential. As about 1 MM of Apple’s notebooks are shipped every quarter – it is about 60 – 70 000 units in the respective quarter. Is that enough to produce relevant profits? Will be subnotebooks sold able to pay back all the needed investments?

So, what about you? Would you buy the subnotebook from Apple? When it is just a small notebook and offers nothing else as a value added?

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