Apple slams netbooks, Google promises cheap Chrome devices

Netbooks running Google's open source Chrome operating system should cost under $400 when they arrive later this year.

Google's chief executive has said netbooks running the OS should be priced between $300 and $400 when they finally arrive.

"Those prices are completely determined by the costs of the glass, the costs of the processor and things like that, but in our case Chrome OS and Android are free so there is no software tax associated with all of this," Eric Schmidt said in a video.

Asus, Lenovo, HP and Toshiba have signed up to produce computers running the Chrome OS, while Acer said it will be the first to release a netbook running Chrome in the second half of this year.

Google and its partners will have to compete with netbooks running other open source systems as well as Microsoft's Windows. Apple has no plans to create a netbook, but thinks its iPad will compete in the space.

Speaking on a conference call for Apple's results this morning, chief operating officer Tim Cook said it was a "no brainer" to set its new iPad against netbooks.

"I can't think of a single thing a netbook does well," Cook added, echoing his chief executive's opinion.

At the iPad launch earlier this year, Steve Jobs said: "Netbooks aren't better than anything... They're just cheap laptops."