They don't have to get to $300.
A netbook that sells for $600-700, about 4x the size of an iPhone and running OS X will produce more profits than all the $300 netbooks in the world. Once you have tried anything Mac, going back to Windows is just plain painful.
Back in the days when I worked, we had to use Windows. The problem is not the speed of the machine, back in those days Windows was faster. The problem is that the slow link in any personal computer is the man-machine interface.
On average, doing anything on Windows required more mouse clicks, and more keyboard inputs. I think something like 1.5 times as many mouse clicks, maybe twice as many, and a lot more keyboard inputs.
I will never forget running into Windows programs that made me input my password twice. They thought they were giving extra security, I though they were giving me a typing test, with double the opportunity to get it wrong.
And still get destroyed by Acer alone in units sold and market share., not to mention Asus, Dell, HP, etc. You got to generate sales to garner more profits.
In the just ended quarter alone, worldwide netbook sales went up seven times to roughly 4.5 million during the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same quarter last year, according to IDC. That alone is more than all Macs Apple manged to sell in the quater. Apple got none of those netbook sales, and that's why Asus has come from nowhere and overtaken Apple in laptop sales in just one year. http://www.macworld.com/article/140377/2009/05/netbook_shipments.html?lsrc=rss_main
“Once you have tried anything Mac, going back to Windows is just plain painful. “
Dream on.
90% of personal computer users have voted with their wallets and bought Windows PC'S instead of Macs. Worldwide, Apple Macs have less than 3% worldwide market share, so it's not like there is a whole lot of humans using Macs is there?
China will soon become the biggest personal computer market on the planet, and proceed to sell a heck of a lot more PC’s per year than the US, yet Apple Mac market share is tiny in that country because of high Mac prices. Netbooks will merely even strengthen the dominance of Windows PC’s.
The rest of your post is irrelevant, when the far bigger majority lower income folks in the US and in developing countries like China, India, Brazil etc can't afford to buy expensive Macs.