Despite Wall Street urgings to introduce an inexpensive product to spur new customers, Apple leaders suggested the Cupertino, Calif. firm is not about to go there.
“It’s a category we watch, we’ve got some ideas here, but for now we think the products there are inferior and will not provide an experience that customers are happy with,” Apple operations chief Tim Cook said in answer to a question Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Berstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi told clients an $800 MacBook could increase demand for Apple products during the weak economy.
However, Cook tried to quiet the call for Apple to enter the low-cost netbook arena, a sector dominated by PC makers.
“The products in there are principally based on hardware that’s less powerful than we think customers want, software technology that is not good, cramped keyboards, small displays, etc.,” Cook reportedly said when presenting the company’s quarterly report Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Cook was named interim Apple CEO while founder Steve Jobs takes a six-month medical leave of absence.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
