Apple just reported yet another record breaking quarter, with $1.21b profit on revenues of $8.16b. Apple easily surpassed expectation and we do not see the economy having any significant impact to its bottom line.

Again, during the the financial conference call with analysts and members of the media, Apple played down the prospect of an Apple netbook on the horizon, echoing what Steve Jobs said earlier this year.

When I’m looking at what’s sold in the Netbook market, I see cramped keyboards, junky hardware, very small screens, bad software. Not a consumer experience that we would put the Mac brand on. As it exists today, we’re not interested in it nor would it be something customers would be interested in the long term. We are looking at the space. For those who want a small computer that does browsing/email, they might want an iPhone or iPod Touch. If we find a way to deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, we’ll do that.

There are lots of rumors on Apple releasing a netbook. Will Apple release a netbook? That depends what is your definition of a netbook. If netbook means a portable notebook at less than $400, then Apple is not going to release one if price defines the category. By labeling netbook as junky, Apple is trying to distance itself from this market.

We are predicting Apple will release a portable notebook with a touch screen of 10 to 12 inch, with builtin 3G and a design along the MacBook Air range. It will be a dream machine for those who crave for a ‘tugged along’ anywhere Mac and priced about $1000. Just do not call it a netbook.

Intel has started volume shipping of its second Atom N280 processor to PC manufacturers. Already Asus’s new Eee 1000HE netbook is equipped with this new processor. More significant is the release of new GN40 graphic chipset to accompany the new processor. Vendors now have a choice of using the older GMA 950 chipset with N280 or have more graphics power using the GN40 chipset.

Atom N280 is still single core with CPU speed increased to 1667MHz, the first-gen Atom N270′s CPU speed is at 1600MHz. The other notable spec bump is the 667MHz FSB bus speed compared with 533MHz FSB on the N270.

Looking at the N280 spec, the new Atom does not seem to differ much from its predecessor. This looks like CPU processor tweaks, with the GN45 chipset aims at fending off the assault of NVidia ION. NVidia ION platform is a recent offering which combine NVidia’s GeForce 9400 with Intel’s Atom that transform netbook to be 1080p HD video capable.

There is rumor that Apple is looking at Atom processor for some of its future products such as AppleTV or even Mac Mini. We are guessing Apple will have Atom based products when the dual-core Atom 330 processor is released sometimes towards Q3/Q4 of this year. We will never know, Apple might surprise us with a MacBook targeting the netbook market. How about a Mac Touch netbook with touch panel LCD?