Netbooks: MSI Wind or a Possible Apple?

Since I first read about the MSI Wind netbook back in April, I’ve been captivated. What’s not to like about it: 1.6GHz Atom processor, long battery life, and 10” screen – all at roughly 2 pounds and with an incredibly portable footprint? Adding to the intrigue, the Wind featured a dedicated overclock button, which overclocks the CPU automagically from the stock 1.6GHz to approximately 1.8GHz, which would come in extremely handy when running media intensive apps or games (unfortunately, this feature has been removed from shipping versions, apparently because MSI didn’t know how the CPU would react to overclocking in the long-term. Hopefully, this great feature will return, perhaps through software). Furthermore, all of this comes at the extremely amazing price of $499. The only drawback: it runs Windows XP (but I could live with this). After salivating over its good reviews, I’ve been waiting to click the purchase button now for over two months.

Anyone who has been following this machine would have noticed that its US release date keeps slipping. Originally scheduled to ship around June 14, the ship date was pushed back to the 2^nd week of July in limited quantities – and then only with the much smaller 3-cell battery – for essentially the same price ($479) as the 6-cell ($499). I think it’s interesting to note that the Wind, and its many clones, have been shipping in other parts of the world now for well over a month. Whatever MSI’s US distribution problems may be, it seems they don’t plague Europe and Asia – which makes me wonder whether MSI’s market focus has inched away from the North American market in sync with the ever declining dollar? Now, Newegg lists availability of the 3-cell black version as 7/26 (after slipping from 7/22) at a cost of $499 – the same retail price MSI originally announced for the six-cell. Additionally, MSI somewhat confusingly announced that the 6-cell version will be available either in late August or September (expect this to slip too). Now the question is: Do I buy the 3-cell version now, and purchase an additional 6-cell battery when it becomes available (at an unknown price), or wait an unknown amount of time for the 6-cell version to ship (Apple could refresh the MacBook or release a netbook in the meantime as well).

As a netbook, this would obviously not end up being my main computer (I would retain a Mac for that), but the Wind’s low price, light weight, and small size combine to form the perfect laptop for porting to and from university and using in the classroom for notes and on the go browsing and work. What I really would like is a MacBook Air, but since its really pricy and its performance is abysmal for the price, I feel like it would be a bad choice as my primary machine (which it would have to be at its $2,000 price). At only $500, the Wind would allow me to easily purchase both a more portable netbook for school, as well as a larger and heavier PowerBook (or MacBook). Obviously, the ideal solution would be for Apple to release netbook Mac, with MacBook Air style, and featuring identical or better specs to the Wind, running Mac OS X and possibly containing a touch screen for iPhone-like multitouch. I would gladly pay an additional premium for such a system, as long as the price would come in sub-$800. Indeed, there has been a lot of recent analyst chatter about the possibility of Apple entering the netbook (or touch tablet) market, possibly this fall or early next year (I remain skeptical, however, due to netbooks relatively low profit margins). This would certainly be a welcome, and highly aggressive move for Apple to attack and likely dominate a whole new and fast growing segment of the electronics and computing industry.