Microsoft primarily blames the increasing sales of netbooks for their OEM revenue drop today in their SEC 10-Q filing. It’s a fact that global computer sales are down for the fourth quarter but netbooks have gained a significant market share and its sales growth is better than traditional notebooks. And in light of the current down economy it is clear that the consumer is shifting their spending. But Apple’s Tim Cook thinks that netbooks “are inferior and will not provide the experience to customers that they’re happy with.”

Whether if Tim Cook is executing a brilliant strategy to surprise the market or packing on too much elitism due to the fact of Apple’s recent success, netbooks can no longer be ignored. One should examine why the iPod and the iPhone are so successful for Apple: smart packaging, slick design, slick interface and not a lot of computer power required to deliver the user experience. There already exists slick looking ultraportable laptops on the market but there was one thing ultraportables never did that the netbook achieved, making the the ultraportable segment affordable but still deliver what the consumer wants.

What does the average portable computer user really need? Primarily they want online connection to surf the web, check email, listen to music, watch a video or two and doing all that with a product that is small, light, easy to carry but not a pain to type on or squint at. For people that want to game, they usually look at a different segment of laptops anyway; but for the majority of users, they don’t need all that computing power.

Apple revolutionized the market because it made the computer more like an appliance, easy to use but not dull like the usual appliance you find in the house such as a blender or a toaster. Appliances made our lives easier; they fulfill some kind of need or want. The netbook is more like an appliance in a way, making ultra-portable computing affordable to the public and priced perfectly for hard economic times where traditionally ultra-portable laptops are priced in the stratosphere.

$999 is the lowest price you can pay for an notebook from Apple. While the iPod Touch and the iPhone does not quite fit in the notebook arena but nevertheless they are smart converging devices that blur the line of computing and are priced $170-$800. A majority of netbooks are priced anywhere from $300 to $650 and some beyond that range. It is a void in Apple’s product segment. Asus, MSI, Acer, HP, Dell, IBM and others are constantly coming out with new models that are visually more appealing. If Apple doesn’t get into the game, it will be losing out.