Apple Speculation Invalidated, No Macbook Netbook or iPhone Nano

The Mac world is fueled by speculation, rumor, intrigue and the gross over-consideration of off-the-record remarks made by Jobs, Cook and others at the helm of Apple. Sometimes, these speculations, rumors and fantastic interpretations actually hit the mark and a product that vaguely fits the marginally-founded conjecture is released. Other times, however, Mac speculators and gossipers receive only shrugged shoulders and terse who-knows-maybe-someday's.
After a year where, more often than not, speculators actually came close to the mark on several occasions (iPhone 3G; Macbook building component upgrades), this year is shaping up to be one where even the most modest speculation and forecasting misses the mark.
Rumors over the release of a Nano version of the iPhone have been quashed. Jobs, in a quarterly conference call in October used a sports analogy to state the reasons for not releasing a phone based on another multimedia device, saying, “…I wasn't alive then, but from everything I've heard, Babe Ruth only had one home run. He just kept hitting it over and over again.”
He later added: "I think that the traditional game in the phone market has been to produce a voice phone in a hundred different varieties. But as software starts to become the differentiating technology of this product category, I think that people are going to find that a hundred variations presented to a software developer is not very enticing. And most of the competitors in this phone business do not really have much experience in a software platform business."
And, if the invalidation of the iPhone Nano rumor wasn’t enough, Apple has stated that the development and release of a Macbook netbook is not in the works. Chief Operational Officer Cook, who is temporarily filling Jobs' positing until June, stated that the company is keeping a watchful eye over the category, but has no plans to enter the market in the foreseeable future.
But, where one actual door closes, an imaginary window opens. In the same October conference call, Jobs had stated that Apple did, in fact, have some “interesting ideas” for the netbook market if that “nascent category evolves," adding that one of the problems facing development and release is a concern over the profitability.
So, though some speculation must be put to rest, cherry-picked phrases from Jobs’ conference call do, at least, provide fodder for continued speculation, however deserved it might actually be.

Related blog posts:

iPhone Nano Rumors Have Everyone Talking What to Expect at Macworld 2009 More of What to Expect at Macworld 2009: Mac Mini and 17 Inch MacBook?