Cupertino: Apple Inc said the $499 (Dh1,831) starting price for the iPad is "an incredible value" that's low enough to fend off rivals and lure consumers away from netbook computers.
"Netbooks are an experience that most people will not want to continue to have," Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said on Thursday at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. "People were interested in the price and they got it home and used it and they went, ‘Why did I buy this?'"
The iPad, which goes on sale next month, offers a better alternative, said Cook, who has been using one for six months. The touch-screen device will be available through Apple's retail and online stores, as well as retailers who operate Apple departments within their stores, such as Best Buy Co, and premium resellers overseas, he said.
The iPad represents a new category of device for Apple, in between smartphones and laptops. At $499, the iPad gives the company a way to compete with netbooks — stripped-down notebooks that typically cost less than $500. Netbooks were the fastest-growing part of the PC market last year.
Apple, which made its name in the desktop-computer field, now should be seen as a mobile-devices company, Cook said. Almost all of its revenue comes from those kinds of products, including the iPhone, iPod and MacBook — along with iTunes music, movies and TV shows that play on those devices.
"The reality is the vast majority of Apple's revenue comes from either mobile devices or the content purchased for those mobile devices," said Cook, who is second in command to Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs.
The Apple TV set-top box, meanwhile, remains more of a "hobby", he said. That device lets computers display content from the internet on widescreen TVs. Apple has no interest in getting into the TV business, but it will continue to invest in Apple TV because "our gut tells us there is something there", Cook said.
Apple also will continue its acquisition strategy of buying companies for their talent and technology, rather than as assets that add to revenue, Cook said.
