The netbook market is one of the bright spots in the personal computer market nowadays, as more PC buyers gravitate toward the small, Web-oriented computers. Asked about netbooks today, Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, made it clear that the company isn't impressed. 

"For us it's about doing great products. When I look at what's being sold in the netbook space today, I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens, and just not a consumer experience and not something that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly," Cook said on Apple's quarterly conference call. "So it's not a space -- as it exists today -- that we're interested in, nor do we believe customers in the long term would be interested in. It's a segment we would choose not to play in."

But then he added a big caveat that will no doubt get some attention.

"That said, we do look at the space and are interested to see how customers respond to it. People that want a small computer, so to speak, that does browsing and email might want to buy an iPod touch, might want to buy an iPhone. So we have other product to accomplish some of what people are buying netbooks for. So in that particular way, we play in an indirect basis.

"And then, of course, if we find a way where we can deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, then we'll do that. We have some interesting ideas in this space. The product pipeline is fantastic for the Mac.

"As we look back over the last four-plus years, 17 of the 18 quarters of the last four-and-a-half years we've exceeded the market rate of growth. To exceed it in this horrendous economy I think is quite an accomplishment, especially when you look at these very low-priced netbooks -- I think it's a stretch to call them a personal computer -- that are really propping up the unit numbers from the industry as a whole."

TechCrunch previously reported that Apple was working on a large-screen iPod touch that would be able to run iPhone and iPod apps, and fill the gap between the company's portable devices and Macs.

Earlier: Mac sales dip 3 percent, but iPhone keeps Apple on a roll