Jobs: The iPhone is Apple's netbook

Continued...At the same time, it was clear that Jobs considers Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch as courting netbook dollars. "One of our entrants into that category, if you will, is the iPhone for browsing the Internet and doing e-mail and all the other things that a netbook lets you do," he said. "Being connected via the cellular net wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits in your pocket."

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research Inc., agreed with Jobs. "For Apple, the iPhone and iPod Touch are a way to provide Web-access devices to the rest of the world," he said, referring to the popularity of netbooks outside the U.S. "And it prevents them from cannibalizing their MacBook lines."

Jobs, however, left the door open to a change in strategy if Apple does decide it needs to join the game. "We'll wait and see how that nascent category evolves," he said. "And we've got some pretty interesting ideas if it does evolve."

Gottheil said that if Apple did compete with the netbooks such as the Eee PC from Asustek, the Aspire One from Acer and the Mini-Note from Hewlett-Packard, it would likely stick to its premium-price model. "I don't think they would go below $500," Gottheil said. The category is defined by some, including research firm Gartner Inc., as lightweight laptops that cost less than $500.

The lowest Gottheil could see Apple going was $599, above that cutoff but $400 under its current entry-level MacBook notebook. Apple reduced the price of that model last week when it unveiled redesigned MacBooks and MacBook Pros.Continued...