Have Apple turned up too late to catch the Netbook bus? Survey says yes.

We’ve been hearing rumour after rumour for months that Apple may be about to unleash a new device, possibly a netbook, or more likely some sort of touch tablet that might push Netbooks out of the picture.

The latest word on the Apple netbook mystery comes from Asher Moses of the Sydney Morning Herald who says that Apple have been in talks with the Ozzie Media about their new tablet.

“Apple has sent specifications of the device to Australian media companies in an effort to sound out whether they would be interested in delivering their content to the tablet. None would speak about the device on the record,” Moses writes.

According to the reports circulating out of Sydney, the new device is not a fully fledged laptop and it is smaller than a laptop but not quite small enough to shove into your pocket. It will play videos and music, allow you to browse the web, and function as an ebook reader too.

Right, that sounds a lot like an up market Netbook to me and probably comes with a price tag that will put it out of reach of many. I mean that’s one of the main reasons why netbooks just won’t go away, they are functional but affordable. Great!

Ok so what we want to know is when is this new Apple device going to make an appearance? We’re getting sick of the hype.

We’ve heard various reports about Apple’s new offering making its arrival before the end of the year but if the latest story is anything to go by we can forget it as apparently we won’t be able to get our hands on it until some time next year.

Now that brings up the question, has Apple totally missed the bus as far as Netbook type devices are concerned?

According to a newly published survey, they most certainly have.

“They have missed the bus from a timing perspective for the holidays,” said Manish Rathi, co-founder of Sunnyvale, California based online retailer Retrevo. “There’s a big time window this holiday season, and Apple doesn’t have a netbook.”

Apparently the survey revealed that 37% of those who said that a Mac was their main computer were also planning to buy a Netbook this year and 35% of those who use a Windows PC said they were too.

“Even worse for Apple is the fact that it’s already lost the early adopters, like the 59% of the iPhone owners who responded to the survey saying they already own or plan to buy a netbook this year,” added Rathi.

Yep, it doesn’t happen often, but as far as netbooks are concerned looks like Apple has well and truly missed the bus.

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