iPod touch: The Apple Netbook?

Brooke Crothers over at CNet wrote an article saying that this holiday season, shoppers should be weighing netbooks against the iPod Touch/iPhone rather than weighing netbooks against notebooks.  The idea is that the iPod Touch has the functionality of a netbook in smaller packaging, while netbooks never really claim to have the full functionality of notebooks.

This line of reasoning falls in line with an Apple investor meeting last year where Steve Jobs was asked about the netbook market and responded that Apple has already responded with the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch as a netbook idea was also mentioned at MacWorld this year. When you think about it, the comparison is apt. When my little high school brother wanted to spend all of his summer money on an apple laptop last year I asked him "what do you want to use the laptop for?" When he responded "for pictures, web surfing, chatting and email," I told him that all of those things can be done with an iPod Touch for much cheaper. Luckily he took my advice.

So what do you think? Is the iPod Touch essentially the Apple netbook? leave your thoughts in the comments