"Apple meanwhile is realizing the AIR is not a netbook and cursing every moment of it despite it being a slick machine." I don't think so. They're pretty short

"Apple meanwhile is realizing the AIR is not a netbook and cursing every moment of it despite it being a slick machine." I don't think so. They're pretty short-sighted, but although I didn't get the impression that the Air sold all that well, the technology that made it possible (like the SSD) are making their way into other products, and coming down in price. You're probably right about netbooks... but I have a feeling that Apple's response to the netbook will be a souped-up iPhone rather than a trimmed laptop. Take the iPhone, throw in a bit of extra horsepower like an Atom processor and/or a few ARM processors, and make it a bit bigger, and you have an iPhoneNetBook. Yes, I'm oversimplifying, but you get the point :)