The Apple netbook, and the return of Steve Jobs

The desktop operating system would invite desktop apps onto hardware never meant to run them. The experience would never match the expectations. And frankly, people aren't using netbooks for the full features of desktop OSs, so there's no benefit to shipping with one. Notebook makers used them only because they didn't have a more appropriate alternative 2 years ago when these things started coming together.

Similarly, Windows tablets never took off because they've been running operating systems and applications on hardware that was never designed for them. Is anyone surprised those bad experiences didn't turn people into converts and evangelists?

It's for those same reasons I would not be surprised at all by an overgrown iPod Touch. The expectations would be that it can do what a Touch does --essentially, everything most people are using netbooks-- but with a bigger screen. It would easily cross that low bar. And developers would climb over one another to re-imagine their software in an app specifically designed for the interface and the hardware driving it.

It wouldn't have the lodestone on it that windows tablets started with. To the contrary, it would hit the market with considerable momentum due the success of the App Store and iPod Touch.