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The iPod touch provides web and email access providing your connectivity needs are satisfied by WiFi. If you need the (almost) always-on connectivity delivered via the mobile phone networks, there's the iPhone 3G.
According to at least one measure, mobile browsing represents a tiny fraction of web use, even though the lion's share of it is taken by the iPhone and iPod touch.
For some purposes - and admittedly this is based on brief experience with various products - Apple's handhelds provide as good an experience as netbooks.
But even with the easy-to-use zoom capability, that small screen can be a big disadvantage.
So it would make a lot of sense if Apple's 'real' netbook turned out to be an oversized iPod touch rather than a shrunken MacBook.
Apple's been talking down netbooks, but that happened with video-capable iPods. So what other clues are there about the company's intentions? See page 2.
As iTWire's Stan Beer said earlier today, "It's hard to imagine - especially given Steve Jobs' statements - that Apple will come out with a netbook that directly competes with the offerings of Asus, Acer and others."
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Sure, such speculation could well prove to be a case of thinking that one plus one plus one equals a lot more than 3.
Consider a device with a 7in diagonal screen. That's twice the size of the iPod touch's but - with the same number of pixels per inch - has a resolution of 960 by 640.
Many web designers assume a minimum screen size of 1024 by 768 unless they're specifically catering for mobile devices, and that would only require scaling to slightly under 95 percent to fit across this hypothesised Apple screen.
And enlarging the display would make it much easier to use the soft keyboard whether the device was in landscape or portrait mode. It still wouldn't be ideal for substantial amounts of text entry, but it might lead to less-terse emails and forum posts.
Apple already has the infrastructure in place to sell software through the App Store, and there are a whole bunch of developers that already have a running start.
What are the other issues? Please read on.
One criticism of the App Store is that it seems to appeal to the 'ringtone' market - people happy to pay a few bucks for the latest novelty item, but they won't in general hand over serious money for real applications.
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One problem is that existing software might not run too nicely without modification. Should the graphics be automatically scaled to fill the screen? That might work for some programs, but it could be ugly and lead to a less than satisfactory user interface.
But if 'legacy' software was displayed pixel for pixel, where on the screen should it be placed? The preferred answer could vary between programs and even between users (especially when you consider the differing needs of left and right handers).
So if this is the direction the company is going in, one possibility is that Apple might brief developers about variable - or at least varied - resolutions at the next Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), even if that means pre-announcing the device.
Alternatively, a small number of favoured partners may be given advanced access so that Apple can demonstrate third-party apps that use the full capabilities of the netbook (netslate?) at the debut event.
The entry-level iPod touch costs $US229/$A329, so it seems unlikely that our hypothetical 7in variant would sell for less than $US500 - but then Apple's already hosed down the idea of meeting that price point (at least in the short term).
But would a premium priced alternative to a conventional netbook be sufficiently attractive to enough buyers? It might if the user experience was sufficiently superior.
One final thought: what if you combined a 7in touchscreen device with Apple's 2008 patent applicaiton describing an iMac-style docking station?
